Forced Allies
by redvelvetcupcakes
Summary: Discovered by Gibbs in Ari's arms, Kate flees to Israel with the man she loves and begins a new life, but staying away from Washington and NCIS is harder than it looks
1. Chapter 1

A/N- Firsts things first, I own nothing and that includes medical knowledge, so where this occurs in the story it will pretty much be what I've gathered from being a huge M*A*S*H fan or from making it up as I go along. Anyhow, read and review my lovlies.

* * *

His gut had led him here tonight.

To the small, neatly furnished living room, where two people stood in semi-darkness, with only the light of the full moon outside and a lone candle on the table to reveal their secrets.

The man had brought the lingering smell of the Sahara desert into the room, with traces of blood and gunpowder mixed up in the scent. A duffel bag lay abandoned by the doorway, dusty from travel and worn from long overuse. A tell-tale bulge in the fabric told him that there was a rifle packed amongst other travel items.

He had brought a _gun_ into her home.

The woman smelled as she always did-a subtle mixture of vanilla and roses, warmth and coffee. Looking slightly frazzled from a long day of work, yet all the more beautiful for it, her handbag has been tossed carelessly onto the table, next to the candle, two glasses of chardonnay and a plate of Turkish delights. The decadent meal was untouched, the two obviously deciding to have it later, or perhaps having lacked the patience to wait.

They stood millimetres apart from one another, their arms linked to the elbows, his large frame leaning down toward her and her delicate face turned up toward his own. They were kissing chastely, their seeming innocence out of place in the situation with which they had created for themselves.

They were oblivious to the intruder whom had stumbled upon their secret and who was determined to turn it into their shame.

Gibbs stood at the threshold to the room, his eyes fixed on his agent as she broke her hold to lace her arms around the assassins neck, to push herself more firmly against the man's body, her feet almost leaving the floor as she propped herself onto her toes. The assassin snaked his arms about her waist and closed whatever distance remained between them, burying his face in her loose hair.

What hurt the most was the intimacy between the two of them. The relaxation that showed that this was not the first time of betrayal, that they had done this- possibly many times- before.

He knew he would have to put a stop to that before his thoughts became any more developed.

The rage was boiling his blood as it was.

He took a firm step into the room and slammed his hand against the wall beside him. The loud noise startling the couple and causing them to break apart. Haswari's eyes flew to his own as the younger man- almost instinctively- pushed Kate behind him, enabling him to cover her in case of an attack.

Though Gibbs had no intention of aiming for Kate- not yet anyway.

"Gibbs!" Kate gasped, looking at him stunned, "What are you doing here?"

He raised his eyebrows, "What am _I_ doing here? What is that _bastard_ doing in your living room Kate? More importantly, why are you necking with him?"

"Do not shout at her Agent Gibbs," Haswari requested, quietly yet forcefully "it is me you are angry with"

Gibbs glared at the man, wanting nothing more than to take out his gun and empty as many bullets into him as possible. But even in his current mood, a part of him- a very small, barely audible part of him- knew that shooting an operative from an ally country, who was also the one successful mole within Al-Qaeda and Hamas, would have severe ramifications.

So he settled for sending a look of extreme loathing towards the unshaken killer,

"Leave" he snarled threateningly, "Now!"

Haswari raised an eyebrow, the long acknowledged feud between them almost determining that he stay and insult or infuriate his nemesis as much as possible. Yet, he turned to Kate and rested a hand on her hip,

"Would you like me to stay?" he asked her so softly Gibbs barely heard the words, Kate chewed her lip looking from one man to the other, "Go" she requested, nodding when he bent to kiss her cheek, and whisper in her ear.

With one last look to Gibbs, Haswari left the room, walking backwards to keep his eye on the situation. After he went out through the back, Gibbs hearing the wire back door close, he turned to his agent.

Kate smoothed her skirt before facing him properly, "I know this looks bad..." she began and he stared at her in stunned disbelief,

"Looks bad, _looks_ bad? I just found you making out with the terrorist in the middle of your living room Kate!"

"He's not a terrorist Gibbs," Kate pointed out "he's Mossad"

"Doesn't make him any less of a bastard" Gibbs fired back, "Or are you forgetting what he did to Gerald, what he did to _me_?"

Kate didn't answer immediately but crossed to her bookshelf, pulling out a book and flipping it open to remove a few sheets of paper. Crossing the room again, she handed it to Gibbs, who turned the paper over and in the moonlight was just able to make out the scrawl of a foreign language,

"What the hell is this?"

"It's a copy of a Mossad case file showing the written orders Ari received from Hamas in which they suggested he maim or kill Ducky," Kate tucked a strand of hair behind her ear,  
"Apparently when Ducky was stationed in the Middle East he was ordered to perform autopsies on Muslim children- when Hamas made the link between him and the morgue Ari needed to break into...In his answering report, he lies and says that Gerald got in the way of the bullet and that he saved the rest of his bullets to ensure he could get out again" Kate moved her head to better see into his eyes,

"He didn't shoot Ducky because he was concerned that he wouldn't survive the wound and he didn't shoot me because as a woman I might have been pregnant, and the blood loss and shock could have caused me to miscarry. Actually," she ducked her head and a small smile flickered across her lips "he avoids shooting women when possible because he doesn't want to be responsible for the death of an unborn child; it's the same as an abortion to him"

Gibbs hurled the papers aside, unable to read them in the dim light and in Hebrew.

"Really Kate, do those lies make it that much _easier_ for you to jump his bones without your conscience nagging you?"

She glared at him, clearly offended by his lack of trust and his assumption of her promiscuity,

"These aren't lies Gibbs, I had the file checked by some friends at the Secret Service, they're legit and how dare _you_ come barging into my home to comment on my personal life!"

"Oh, your _personal_ life" Gibbs shouted, "So what, servicing Al-Qaeda is how you spend your free time? Hell, should I come back tomorrow night and bring Fornell in case we have the chance to pick up some of his 'most wanted suspects'?"

"That is sick Gibbs, how can you speak to me like that?" Kate demanded, her cheeks becoming flushed and the candlelight dancing across the tears in her eyes.

"How can you forget everything that bastard has done and crawl into bed with him? Or have you been carrying around a case of Stockholm syndrome for the last year and a half?" he gestured angrily as he shouted at her and he saw her flinch before her face hardened,

"You and I both know you're not angry at me for being with Ari..." she began, her voice sharp with fury,

"Oh aren't I?" he interrupted but she continued,

"No you're angry at me because I'm with another man"

Speechless Gibbs reeled back and stared at her, shocked as she glared at him,

"You're angry because I'm with a man for longer than one night. My flings you could forgive me and I ignored that red head with the Porsche, but you can't stand the fact that we somehow missed our chance and I moved on, you're angry at me for not still flirting with you and you're angry at yourself because in Gitmo you warned me that relationships between team members don't work when all you wanted to do was kis-"

Later Gibbs wouldn't be able to recall what was going through his mind at that exact moment. All he remembered was the feeling of fury roaring through his veins as the truth of Kate's words punched him over and over again. His body was screaming with adrenaline and he did the first thing that came to his confused mind.

His hand flew out and slapped Kate across the face to silence the truth falling from her lips.

She hadn't been expecting the blow, she stumbled backward and slipped in her heels, falling against the table and gripping it for support to keep herself from going down, with her free hand she clutched her nose and looked to him with horror written across her face.

Gibbs knew his expression mirrored her own. Automatically he opened his mouth to apologise but she turned her face away and in his guilt he could think of nothing more than turning and fleeing from the house.

Though he didn't get far enough fast enough to block out the sound of her tears.

* * *

The moment Kate heard the front door slam; she sunk to the floor and dissolved into tears. Crying with shock, grief and emotional overload she found herself shaking as she searched her pockets for a handkerchief to wipe away the blood pouring down her face.

"Caitlin,"

She shivered as his warm voice called enquiringly from her back door, but she was too shaken to answer him, reaching out instead for Tony the dog as she pattered across the room, waken from her slumber to whimper at the sight of her owners face. Resting her front paws on Kate's knee she began licking her face in comfort, causing Kate to chuckle at her dog's behaviour.

Tony growled as she found herself being pulled to the side. Ari appeared in Kate's vision, bending over, his eyes widening when he saw the blood dripping from her chin. Straightening up again, she heard him walk into her kitchen and the sound of a tap running before he returned to the living room, turning the lights on as he went and crouched down before her,

"Let me see" he prompted, tilting her chin up and turning her head side to side,

"It does not appear to be broken, though we shall need to keep ice on it for at least twelve hours...are you in pain?"

Her breathing was shaky but she managed to wrest her quivering lips into a smile,

"Emotionally or physically?" she quipped but he didn't seem to share her sense of humour,

"Either way I shall kill him for this- and thanks to the CIA I have the diplomatic immunity to do it"

Kate's bitter smile fell from her face as he wiped the blood away with a wet tea towel,  
"That's not funny"

"Possibly because I am not joking. I take harmful actions against the women in my life very seriously Caitlin"

"Killing Gibbs won't solve anything" she pointed out pushing his hand away, "And neither will you stamping around announcing you want to kill him all the time! You know half the reason you and Gibbs cause so much trouble for each other in the first place is because you're both so damn proud. Maybe if one of you had been able to show a little humility I wouldn't be sitting here bleeding right now"

Her adrenalin fuelled anger left as quickly as it had arrived and she found herself shaking again, slowly she moved forward and wrapped her arms around Ari's neck. Throwing the towel up onto the table, he returned her embrace, sliding his arm under her knees to lift her up.

"I am sorry you are hurting Caitlin and that I caused it" he whispered apologetically, kissing her forehead at the hairline, Kate nodded quickly and shifted to bury her face in his neck,

"Just, hold me, okay"

"Always," he promised "come"

* * *

He carried her into her bedroom and lay her down on the bed, releasing himself from her embrace so he could stand up and snap his fingers, summoning Tony to the room,  
"Sleep" he commanded her quietly and with a happy bark, Tony curled up on the rug beside Kate's bed. Chuckling again at her pet's easy joy; Kate reached out and scratched her behind the ears. Ari continued to move about the house, locking the doors and checking the windows, cleaning up the living room and kitchen. Meanwhile Kate kicked off her shoes and the clothes she had worn that day, pulling her nightgown from underneath her pillow and slipping it on just as he returned to her bedroom. Without a word, he closed the door and eased off his leather jacket, stripping down to his boxers before resting one knee on the bed and smirking at her,

"With your permission?" he teased gently and managed to elicit a genuine smile from her,

"Hurry up, it's cold"

He slid between the sheets and shuffled over until he could wrap an arm about her with ease, unfortunately he was also able to press towel covered ice to her nose, she protested weakly,

"Caitlin it will stop the swelling and hopefully the bruising, I will hold it here while you sleep"

"Jerk" Kate mumbled even as she felt sleep begin to claim her, she snuggled into the pillows and felt him kiss her hair,

"You will thank me when your nose does not resemble a Lebanese eggplant"

* * *

A/N- For those who don't understand Gibbs explosive anger, it'll be explained a few chapters later


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing Kate was aware of when she awoke was the cold pressing against her nose. Discomforted she tried to push it away only to feel Ari's laughter as he shifted until her back touched his chest, "Perhaps a few minutes rest will not harm you" he considered, moving the towel wrapped ice away. Kate sighed with relief and rolled onto her stomach, turning her face towards him,

"You didn't seriously keep that thing against my nose all night did you?"

He grinned, "But of course Caitlin, remember _I_ am the one who has to look at you"

Kate made a face at the banter but couldn't be bothered responding in kind,  
"Can't have been comfortable to sleep like that"

He shrugged, "A lifetime of sleeping with a gun in your hand has its benefits, my wrists are used to the strain and your nose appreciates my efforts"

Dreading the task ahead, yet knowing that she couldn't avoid it forever. Kate rolled back over to face her bedside table, opening the top drawer she fumbled around for a long forgotten hand mirror. When she found it, she propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at the small square glass, gasping in stunned disbelief.

Her nose wasn't overly swollen, maybe a tad around the nostrils, it was the bruising that shocked her. The left side of her nose, where Gibbs had swung was a deep purple, almost black and it spotted across to the right side with a red and slightly yellow tinge. Raising her fingers she press the flesh slightly, wincing at the reactionary tenderness,

"Are you in pain?" Ari asked quickly, reaching over to caress her back. His hand rubbing small soothing circles as his eyes watched her with concern.

She shook her head, "A little but nothing to worry about"

Setting the mirror aside she lay back down and held her hand out for him to link with his, her eyes gazing in wonder at the contrast of his dark skin with her ivory tone. Ari's fingers gripped hers gently and he mirrored her position, lying on his stomach and facing her,

"You are awake early" he commented quietly, and she realised how early it was. She could hear Tony's still snoring away on the rug beside the bed. Outside in her living room she heard a musical clock Ducky had bought her strike three. Grumbling, she buried her face into the pillow momentarily forgetting about her nose, the impact caused her to yelp and quickly lift her head. Haswari chuckled,

"Let me get you some painkillers Caitlin, they will help"

She shook her head again, determined not to take painkillers until they were absolutely necessary. Painkillers mixed with emotions often resulted in nausea, something which she certainly didn't need today.

Sighing when she realised that she was almost completely awake, she faced her boyfriend,

"Why are you so awake?" she asked curiously and he shrugged casually, "Hyper-vigilance, I only sleep soundly when I am in Israel or locked up tight in an Israeli Embassy somewhere. Also I don't require that much sleep" he threw her a lazy grin, "A habit I developed during my days at Edinburgh Medical School"

Kate glared playfully at him, "Well in that case you can take care of Tony when she wakes up"

He laughed, "Of course Caitlin, whatever you desire"

He caught a strand of hair and brought it to his lips, kissing it softly,

"What do you want to do today?"

She had been asked that question a million times by a million different men, but almost every time that question had been asking her where she wanted to go, or what she wanted to do for a date. This time the man was asking her how she wanted to handle the chaos that would be NCIS and the MCRT.

"Honestly" Kate announced, deliberately misinterpreting the question, "I would like to go out for breakfast, maybe take a stroll in a nice park somewhere..."

Ari chuckled, "You may have to go alone Caitlin, if I am seen anywhere near your bruised face, every man and woman on the street will want to cause me bodily harm"

She shrugged, "I could wear make-up"

Truthfully she didn't want to go outside with a bruised nose, she didn't want everyone to look at her and think she was a battered wife too weak to leave an abusive husband. She hated Gibbs easily in that moment, for submitting her to such personal humiliation. She did however, want to have breakfast with Ari at a nice restaurant, or go for a walk with him- any activity really that they could do outside without fear of being recognised by an NCIS, FBI or CIA agent and word getting back to her boss.

"I wish we could run away together" Kate mused out loud, thinking dreamily, "Somewhere warm this time of year, like Australia, I've always wanted to see a koala"

* * *

Beside her she felt Ari tense ever so slightly and she wondered if she was moving too fast for him. Since he had first reappeared in her life six months back, shortly after his agents had kidnapped her- an incident he had apologised profusely for- they had only seen each other a handful of times. Their connection was deep, both of them knew that much, they had discovered it that fateful day in the NCIS autopsy and it had been so instantaneous and yet so profound that Ari had gone to great lengths to see her again just to assure himself that he hadn't been imagining things. However it was difficult for them, Ari came to America only irregularly so as not to attract suspicion and Kate still even went on the occasional date to do the same, although she found herself fighting the urge to fall asleep from boredom on every one of those dates. When they were together though...Kate remembered one night, the third time he had come to see her. It had been a stormy night and they had turned off the lights and curled up on her couch watching the thunder and lightning while they shared stories of their childhood, teenage and college years. She shared secrets with him that she had never told anyone else and he did the same.

They hadn't spoken of love yet, nor had they had sex even though they'd shared a bed- but when she was with him, it felt so _right_.

"Israel is lovely this time of year Caitlin" he suggested softly, and she grinned with relief,

"I've always wanted to see the Dead Sea" she murmured whimsically, imagining also the numerous religious sights. Bethlehem, Jerusalem...

"Then come back to Israel with me" Ari suggested, snapping Caitlin right out of her reverie,

"Hang on- what?"

He shrugged, feigning casualness although Kate was sure he was feeling anything but that,

"You want to go away- Israel is beautiful, parts of it are very safe and we wouldn't have to worry about being seen by NCIS agents in the streets of Tel Aviv. I could show you the country and we could have fun and be a normal couple" he gave a depreciating smirk, "Well at least on a scale relative to us"

"But...I can't just run away"

"Why not?"

Those two words seem to be his favourite. When she sees his mouth form the words and hears his deep warm voice execute the sounds she shivers in delight and anticipation. To her those words appear to be both a personal challenge and a war cry. A reminder that something is impossible only if they want it to be.

"Because" she searches her mind for reasons, desperately gripping for them even as they fade away "...well Tony for starters, someone will have to take care of her..."

"Bring her with us, she'll be fine"

"Okay...um...my job at NCIS, Gibbs would kill me if I just-..."

Kate stopped, the words dying on her lips as she realised the major flaw in her argument. Last night Gibbs had caught her in the arms of the man he hated most in the world- CIA aside- and been so angry that he had hit her. Did she even have a job to go to this morning? And even if by some miracle she wasn't fired, did she want to face Abby, Ducky, Tony and McGee after Gibbs was through explaining her treachery to them? They worshipped the Marine like she had once done, if he told them that she had betrayed him, they would hate her.

And hadn't she often dreamed of escaping? Of one day waking up, getting on a plane to some exotic destination and just disappearing, leaving her life with all its troubles and stresses and obligations behind for a little while? She had always imagined it but had always been too much of a coward to actually go through with the idea.

What was there to hold her back? Family- she wasn't close to any of them. Friends- same trouble and her best friend was Abby. Career- doubtful she still had one. Partner- he was the one suggesting they run away.

With a wide smile gracing her face, Kate wiggled over until she was inches away from Ari and gave him a quick kiss, "How soon do you think we can leave?"


	3. Chapter 3

A/N- Thanks for the lovely reviews, for all the followers of Forget Not Yet, the final chapter will be up by Sunday night I promise!

* * *

Kate was shaking with excitement as she hurried through her house frantically packing personal knick knacks into her large suitcase. She'd already packed enough clothes to last her two months, rolling them up to create more room, next she'd packed a long book to read on the plane and her toiletries. Now, with her passport in her handbag she was scouring her house, searching for anything she was absolutely certain she wouldn't be able to do without. She threw a smile at Ari as he passed by her, talking on his cell phone in fiery Hebrew, his words coming thick and fast. He ducked to press a kiss to her hair and kept walking. Reaching her bedroom once again she cast an investigative eye over the now messy room, racking her brain to ensure she hadn't forgotten anything.

"Ah ha!" she cried as she dove into her wardrobe and pushed aside the numerous shoes she had collected throughout the years, pushing them aside she found the item in question.

When she was fifteen she saved her pocket money for two months to buy a treasure chest. She could only afford a small one but ever since she had brought it home brimming with excitement, she had kept her most special mementos hidden away in the wood and velvet box. Opening it now she quickly spotted what she was looking for,

"Caitlin?" Ari had come into the room and was looking down at her curiously, in explanation she held up the leather bracelet with the pendant hanging off,

"A miracle medallion of Glastonbury" she announced, slipping it onto her wrist, "My best friend in high school brought it back from England for me; it's a good luck charm that I always wear when I travel"

Ari grinned and picked up the pendant, fingering the topaz on the one side and turning it over to view the cross on the other, "Why not?"

Kate knew Ari had almost no loyalty or adherence to Islam. What parts of his religion he did abide by were more often than not simply the results of childhood conditioning. Unlike a lot of potential atheists however, he did respect her faith, even when she demonstrated superstitions that even her brothers would tease her for. Like wearing a lucky charm when she travelled,

"So..." she tugged her bracelet back and slipped her hands into the pockets of her jacket,

"Did you get us a flight?"

He gave her the smile that always reminded her of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland,

"That depends..."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "On?"

"On whether you can be ready to fly in three and a half hours" he teased tenderly, cupping her face as she threw him a disparaging look,

"You know I have some friends in airport security who would just love to give a suspicious looking traveller a physical exam" she threatened,

He laughed and followed her out to the living room, picking up her bags while Tony jumped into her arms, "With your beauty Caitlin, it is not America's security they'll have in mind"

He ducked out of her reach before she could decide whether or not to smack him. Glaring at his back as he made his way to the front door, he studied the street outside,

"I have already called a taxi and told them to expect an animal and provided Tony receives a health check within three days of landing in Israel, my friends at Dulles and Tel Aviv will waive the required health certificate"

Kate nodded and set Tony down as she paced into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water. As she drank she opened the fridge door and looked in dismay at the amount of food inside, all likely to sit there and rot.

"Leave it precious" Ari chastised as he came up behind her, "I can get an intern at the Israeli embassy to come past and clean it out"

She shook her head, not wanting some complete stranger to be in her home, going through her things...having an idea she hurried to her desk and found a used envelope and a red pen. She wrote a letter to her next door neighbour's fifteen year old daughter, explaining that she had gone away and could she please watch the house, water the plants and check her fridge, reaching for her wallet she drew out sixty dollars, more than enough to warrant a good job done and slipped out her front door. Quickly crossing the yards, she tucked the note under their door mat and jumped when she heard the blare of the taxi horn.

"Last chance to run Caitlin" Ari warned her as he appeared on her front lawn, carrying her bags and ushering a suddenly curious Tony with his foot. Kate stared around at the familiar world before her, having rarely studied it in the still darkness of a winter morning.

It was hauntingly beautiful.

But she was so very ready for much, much more.

She turned back to Ari and grinned widely,

"Put my bags in the trunk would you?"

* * *

Tony whined as she was placed into a cage, sniffing the space carefully and deciding that she didn't like it. Kate felt horribly guilty even as she saw the three digit price tag and reasoned that the only way her dog could fly better today was if she went first class.

At some point an animal lover of almost ridiculous proportions had created a method of transportation with anxious owners in mind. Tony would be travelling in the cage only until she reached the plane, at which point she and three cats, two canaries and another dog would be released into much larger holding pens with blue rugs and food and water bowls. Even Kate had laughed when the check-in attendant had handed her a menu and asked her to tick her dog's preferred food and, for a twenty dollar fee, offered to have her dog walked by the veterinary assistant/caretaker in the hundred metre space provided. Assuring her that it wasn't necessary, Kate had still walked away from the desk with a number provided so that she could use the plane phone to ring the caretaker and check up on her dog.

Ari was right behind her, having been met at the airport by a dazed, half asleep intern from the Israeli embassy who had handed him his hastily repacked suitcase and wished him a happy trip before staggering back out the door.

She was still shaking her head as she and Ari meandered through Dulles airport, tickets and passports in hand. Ari as it turned out was entitled to free airfares when he travelled during his downtime, provided they knew roughly which hemisphere he was headed to, the Mossad covered the costs of his getting there. Hence the reason Kate was going to travel business class for the first time in her life that wasn't work related. They reached the security check point and quietly joined the fast growing line of travellers. Looking around her curiously, Kate saw the general mixture of tired jetsetters, businessmen, the young women who insisted on wearing make-up, jewellery and their tightest, skimpiest clothes despite the knowledge that they would be ridiculously uncomfortable, and the backpackers. She looked down at her ensemble, black pants and green jacket, determined to be both warm and comfortable on the plane and when she landed in Tel Aviv, at the end of the twelve hour flight.

When they reached the front of the queue, she automatically pulled two trays down and tossed her handbag into one while Ari dropped his backpack into another. She removed her necklace and stepped thoughtlessly through the metal detectors, her face going red with embarrassment as the alarms went off.

The guard stationed at the luggage belt looked up immediately and ran his eyes over her,

"Your bracelet ma'm" he suggested wearily and she remembered the pendant dangling from her wrist. "No" she disagreed, "that can't be...oh wait!"

Digging her hand into her pocket, she withdrew her badge, tossing it onto the table before ducking back through the metal detectors, this time silently. "Sorry" she whispered to the guard as he inspected the identification, "It's a habit"

"What's NCIS?" he demanded and she smothered the annoyance, after two years she was used to the question,

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service"

"Ah huh"

The guard became distracted as the alarms on the luggage screen started going off, he stopped the belt and checked the picture, his complexion paling noticeably at the imagery he saw,

"I have licenses for that and a diplomatic passport that enables me to carry arms" Ari intoned uninterestedly as he stepped through the detectors without trouble. He handed his passport to the guard who turned away to ring his superiors, Kate stepped to the side and tried to ignore the curious stares of the travellers around them, some of whom were looking at Ari's dark skin with unconcealed distrust.

After another five minutes, in which the guard learnt that Israeli diplomatic passports were indeed legitimate in United States Territory and Kate learnt that though nobody knew what NCIS stood for, everyone apparently knew what a Mossad Kidon officer was, they were in International departures, wandering through the duty free shops and debating whether or not to have breakfast. They had an hour to kill until the plane started to board, and though Ari's connections could waive regular requirements and get them on early, she didn't really see the point. Settling down in the chairs of the waiting lounge while Ari continued to browse through the bookstore, Kate sat her book across her lap and started reading, not even realising until a few minutes later that it was her phone ringing. Reaching for it just as it stopped, she cursed under her breath and checked the screen. The missed call was from Tony and barely a few seconds later a message followed,

_'Gibbs wnts us wrk 7 ur nt hme nauti gal!'_

Jumping as though she'd been shocked, Kate turned off her phone and hurled it into her bag. Searching frantically, she saw Ari leaving the bookstore, holding a thin orange tome in his hand,

"Hey" she stood up and kissed him quickly on the lips, "My turn"

She dove quickly into the crowds, looking back over her shoulder to see him sinking down onto the seats, opening his book with nonchalance.

There was a bank of computers two lounges away from her gate. She threw herself at an empty one and fed some notes into the machine without looking. It came to life and told her she had five hours of use, which meant she had handed over more than fifty dollars; she'd have to find an A.T.M in Tel Aviv. She accessed the internet and waited impatiently for it to load, when she reached her email however, her fingers paused over the keys. She held them there for a few heartbeats before remembering the funny looks people had been giving her all day, the judgemental glares Ari had received for standing next to a woman with a bruised face,

_Gibbs,_

_I resign from NCIS; I know that this is unprofessional, that I should give you proper notice but..._

Kate hesitated, what should she say? But you nearly broke my nose last night for catching me _inflagrante delicato_ with your enemy and there is so little professionalism at MCRT that this actually seems appropriate?

No reason to add any more fuel to the fire.

_...I think we can both agree that this is for the best._

_Sincerely_

_Caitlin Todd_

She sent the email before even bothering to spell-check and crossed her fingers as she made her way back towards Ari. Their plane was boarding in five minutes and took off in twenty; Gibbs checked his email so rarely that she was certain that she and Ari would be halfway over the Pacific Ocean before he realised that rather than just taking a sick day, she had left.

Surely he wouldn't be able to stop her.

Surely she didn't want him to?

* * *

Sudden doubt wracked her and she wondered if she was doing the right thing. Her career was in tatters, her friends would hate her by lunchtime but did that really justify flying halfway around the world with a man she hadn't been on a real date with yet?

The crowds parted and she was able to see Ari at the lounge, sitting where she had left him, only he had been joined by a young boy who was standing before him, staring up at him and they were talking.

Curious, Kate approached and heard the young boy ask Ari why his skin was so dark,

"I live in the desert and spend a lot of time in the sun, also I am Arab and we are a dark skinned race" Ari replied, his voice not changing as people's were wont to do when speaking to children.

"Why?" the boy asked, his fingers in his mouth,

"Because as a race we tend to have high concentrations of melanin"

"Why?"

Kate stood back and watched as Ari stopped to consider this question, "Generally people with ancestors from warmer regions who are exposed to higher levels of ultraviolet radiation have darker skin; presumably we evolved in such a manner so as to better enable us to survive the climate"

"Why is your voice different from mine?"

Kate smirked at the sudden change the line of questioning had taken but suddenly a red headed woman appeared at her side, looking frantic,

"Oh thank-god, Patrick what have I told you about running off?"

The boy looked at her bewildered, "I walked off I didn't run"

Apologising the mother grabbed her son and dragged him away as he began to repeat the answers Ari had given him. Being released from the interview, Ari stood as the announcement to board reached the lounge. He stretched and held his hand out to Caitlin as she approached,

"Ready?" he asked her casually and she responded by cradling his face in her hand and kissing him tenderly, channelling her emotions into the kiss as around them people scurried to be first in line. She stepped away and took his hand, holding it as they went through the large doors and walked down the hallway until a polite young stewardess guided them to their seats.

Ari automatically gave her the window seat; he was a much more seasoned flyer and had seen the approach to Israel a thousand times. Kate kissed him again and turned to see the sun just beginning to rise.

Funny how a few minutes ago she could have doubted that she wanted this.

* * *

A/N- tell me what you think and yes Tony's travel isn't that far from fact, jetspets australia offers some of the services I mentioned and I don't doubt there are similar methods of transportation for animals out there.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N- Sorry I didn't update right away. I personally hate it when you're into a really good story and then the author decides to go on hiatus or drop off the face of the earth for several months on end (although I myself do that occasionally- okay a lot) hence the reason that I am trying to be one chapter ahead of what I'm posting, so while I'm uploading chapter 4, chapter five is ready and I'm starting on chapter 6, so I keep track of the story line and don't keep you hanging too long this time. So anyhow, here's Gibbs pov.

* * *

"Kate, where are you?...I've called you five times already...Gibbs wants us at work right..."

Tony did an incredible impression of a deer caught in the headlights when he saw Gibbs approaching with the habitual coffee in hand. He threw the phone into his desk drawer and slammed it shut, nearly taking the cradle and phone cord with it,

"Hey boss" he greeted cheerfully, his grin just an inch too wide, not enough to concern an acquaintance but enough so that Gibbs knew that the hamster that was DiNozzo's brain was running like mad to get some traction on the wheel. Enjoying the knowledge that his SFA was sweating bullets, Gibbs waited until he reached his desk and sat down before putting the man out of his misery,

"That paperwork isn't going to do itself DiNozzo" he noted before turning on his computer,

"On it boss" Tony called just a little too loudly before making a big show of pulling open a folder and picking up his pen. Gibbs grinned and settled down to his own work, unlike his SFA he wasn't half as worried about the empty desk next to him.

He suspected Kate would be taking a sick day today. Probably sleeping in, maybe going for a nice long run or taking her drawing pad to the local park and sketching something that caught her eye.

The eye that he had bruised.

He wanted to shoot himself for what he had done to her, the crime he had committed. He'd damn near considered jamming one of his hand tools into his thigh when he had got home last night, instead he'd drunk enough bourbon to lay out a team of Navy SEALS and driven out to Shannon and Kelly's graves.

The graves of his wife and daughter.

As he'd expected, Shannon had been waiting for him there, his memory of her still fresh in his mind. He saw her standing by her tombstone, hands on her hips, glaring at him,

"That was a terrible thing you did Gibbs" she chastised as he knelt down before her plot,

"I know Shannon, I just...I had to make her stop before..." he broke off and wiped quickly at his eyes, lest he find moisture there,

"Before what gunny?" she challenged, sitting down to face him, cearly having no intention of being gentle with him, "Before she pointed out the truth? Made you realise that it's possible to love someone who isn't a red head?"

All these things and so many more.

"Before she made me realise how little I miss you and Kelly when she's around" he burst out, running his hand through his hair as the grief ripped his heart anew,

"That's because you love her daddy"

His head flew to the right and he saw his daughter twirling around in a circle, happy and carefree as she watched her dress fly out around her, "That's why it hurts less when she's there"

"See that Jethro" Shannon pointed out exasperatedly, "Your own _daughter_ understands better than you do. Nothing is ever going to replace us and you know that...but it is possible for you to love again, get that through your thick Marine skull of yours"

She was little more than a memory mixed with an impression so she couldn't wipe away the tears that coursed down Gibbs cheeks; he had to do that himself as he walked back to his car and drove home.

When he had woken up this morning and called Tony to gather the troops early, he hadn't been quite sure what he was expecting, really anything short of a squad of policemen and a team of lawyers ready to rip him to shreds over the incident was fine with him. He had summoned them anyway deciding that if Kate did turn up, he'd have more hours with which to get her into an elevator, break rule six and apologise himself senseless and if she didn't he'd be able to knock off early and go see her. Maybe stop by her favourite florist and select the most expensive flowers they had.

Either way he wanted to tell her that office romances weren't always a mistake or even if they were, she'd always have a job at NCIS. He wanted to tell her that he was so sorry for ever hurting her, for making her think that he wasn't interested in her when in truth...

Leroy Jethro Gibbs was pretty damn sure he was falling in love with Caitlin Todd.

* * *

"Probie! What the hell happened to you?"

Hearing Tony's voice, both shocked and amused, had Gibbs looking up to see young Timothy McGee stumbling into the bullpen, covered in soot, chemicals and what smelled like raspberry juice.

"So...sorr-sorry boss" the probationary agent gasped as he staggered to his desk. Gibbs ignored the apology and stood up at the same time as Tony, together they managed to sit the young man down at his desk and check him over for any obvious injuries.

"What happened McGee?" Gibbs asked quietly, crouching down before the agent as he struggled to catch his breath,

"Ca- came in early like you requested and r- ran into Abby"

"Ah" Tony mused and looked down to meet his boss' eyes, really McGee could have stopped there and they would have taken the explanation as full.

After all- it was Abby.

"She wanted to...build a Caf...Caff-Pow machine in the evidence garage boss"

McGee finished by coughing violently and DiNozzo followed Gibbs order to get the poor boy some water before he could even ask. Clapping him sympathetically on the shoulder, Gibbs stood and went back to his desk, trying to fight the smile that so often broke out whenever Abby got bored with work and 'experimented'.

His eyes glanced to his computer and he frowned when he saw some sort of message blinking at him from the corner of the bar thingy.

"Di-" he began to shout before remembering that Tony was no longer the most tech-savvy agent in the bullpen, "McGee, my computer's trying to tell me something"

"Huh?" the man looked befuddled for a moment before comprehension lit his eyes,

"Oh yeah...um Director Morrow had me put an email alert on your desktop so you would know when you received emails"

Lowering his head, Gibbs squinted at the tiny message,

"It says I have three hundred and eight un-read emails McGee!"

"Looks like I won the pool" Tony crowed as he swept back into the bullpen, plonking down a plastic cup of water on McGee's desk, "Drink probie, it's nourishing"

McGee continued to look uncertainly at Gibbs, "If you want boss I could read your emails for you"

"You don't have the clearance probie" Tony scolded from his desk, turning a file upside down before righting it up again and reading it properly.

Gibbs ignored them both and pressed the buttons on the keyboard until the computer did what he wanted and brought up his letter box. At first glance there were fifteen emails from Fornell, three from Director Morrow, one from DiNozzo about a snowboarding turkey in the last three days alone.

But the first email in his letter box was from Kate, sitting down quickly he took a quick breath and opened it, hoping like hell she hadn't emailed to invite him to breakfast- surely she knew better than to contact him via email?

_Gibbs,_

_I resign from NCIS; I know that this is unprofessional, that I should give you proper notice but I think we can both agree that this is for the best._

_Sincerely_

_Caitlin Todd_

Four, five, six times Gibbs read that email before the words sunk in. She was quitting? Nobody quit the NCIS MCRT- well, nobody he _liked_ anyway, heck even Stan had only left because he thought becoming an Agent Afloat would advance his career.

He realised only when McGee and DiNozzo were standing at attention before his desk that he had summoned them, they quickly fled again and he realised that he must have given them orders, he sincerely hoped that they had been the right orders. The only order he ever wanted them to follow again,

'_Find Kate'_

Both men were typing furiously at their computers while Gibbs stood and paced the bullpen wondering whether or not he could get away with placing a BOLO out on her and maybe getting the FBI in on the search.

No, not without having to explain the reason why he was so anxious and not without having to reveal her shameful relationship with the Al-Qaeda mole.

What if Haswari had hurt her?

That bastard was wildly unpredictable, trained in unspeakable acts and seemed heartless enough to be capable of hurting a woman.

He'd never forgive himself if his worst enemy had hurt his Kate.

Ignoring McGee as he babbled something about something, Gibbs returned to his desk to grab his badge and gun. Summoning DiNozzo as he made his way to the elevator, it wasn't until his SFA questioned him that he decided where they were going.

"323 Mockingbird Ave" he announced as they stepped in and he pressed the button,

"Kate's place?"

"Yep"

* * *

They pulled into her driveway and Gibbs noted with some relief that her car was still parked in the driveway. Even though his training told him that if Haswari had planned on kidnapping Kate he would have taken a different vehicle, his heart was in denial and hoping like hell that she was still in the house.

It was this hope that had him ordering Tony to stay with the car while he went to her front door, knocking twice and waiting for a decent length of time before withdrawing his pocket knife and jamming it into the lock. He slid into the house quickly, calling for Kate as he made his way through the door he had walked out of a mere eight hours earlier. He scanned the living room and saw the candle had gone out, the plate had been removed and the chardonnay was gone, the room was spotless, with no sign that Haswari had ever been there.

"Kate" he called her name again to announce his presence as he headed to her bedroom,

"Are you h-..."

His heart caught in his throat.

Her bedroom was a mess.

The bed was unmade, clothes littered the floor, drawers were opened and her shoes had tumbled from her closet.

Had there been a fight?

No, looking around more carefully Gibbs could see that nothing had been broken or bent out of shape, his experience told him that she had simply left in a hurry.

But at this hour of the morning, what was there to hurry for?

He did another quick sweep of the house and didn't see anything that would give him any clues as to her whereabouts. He had never been in her home before, so he wouldn't notice at first glance if anything was missing, but he had an eye for detail working in his favour. He opened a linen cupboard and saw towels piled neatly at eye level, but the shelf above his head empty. Reaching up he ran his fingers across the space and brought them back down again,

One was dusty and one was not.

"Boss" Tony interrupted his train of thought by stomping into the house, "Found something"

He held up a used envelope which Gibbs quickly snatched from him,

"Next door neighbour found this under her doormat twenty minutes ago, along with sixty dollars..."

_Hi Danielle,_

_I'm going overseas for a __few __month or so and was hoping you would be able to collect my mail and watch my house for me, don't worry about Tony she's coming with me. You're welcome to any food in the fridge (except the alcohol cause your mum would kill me) just throw it out when it expires._

_Thanks for this; I'll send you a postcard_

_Kate_

His eyes hurt to read the bright red missive, but he studied the curve and line of every letter as he and DiNozzo headed back towards the car, it looked like Kate's neat handwriting and none of the words fitted the duress code they had in the MCRT.

But overseas? Had he really hurt her so much that she felt the need to put an ocean between them?

Handing what was possibly his last contact with Kate back to his SFA he buckled his seatbelt and started the car, reversing violently out of her driveway and nearly colliding with cyclist as he sped from her street,

"Danielle's mother, lovely woman, blonde, calls herself Sarah" Tony rambled as Gibbs overtook a turning truck, "Said that she was in the kitchen this morning- getting herself a glass of water- when she saw Kate getting into a taxi with a man of medium height, roughly same build as me, he was carrying her bags and ushering the dog to the taxi...I asked how Kate seemed, said she was walking around casually, didn't seem to be under any duress..."

Of course she didn't. Haswari had already seduced her; she felt safe with him so he wouldn't need to use any force to kidnap her.

It was getting harder and harder to sell himself that story, but he wouldn't give up on it until he stood face to face with Kate and had her tell him, in her own words, that she had left him of her own accord.

* * *

He drove wildly through the streets of Washington, halfway to Dulles airport before McGee rang to report that the taxi had dropped Kate off there. He knew Tony was suspicious of Kate's sudden disappearance and his frantic reaction to it, but Gibbs also knew that Tony wouldn't demand an explanation until he was damn ready to give one.

Parking illegally outside the doors to international departures, Gibbs flashed his badge before anyone could protest. He marched straight past the long line of passengers and held it up to the woman at the check-in desk.

"Special Agent Gibbs. Naval Criminal Investigative Service" he announced as Tony finally caught up to him, panting slightly, "I need to know if a woman by the name of Caitlin Todd is flying today"

The young woman, obviously cowed by the sight of the badge, began frantically typing away at her computer as a heavy set young man lumbered up,

"Excuse me" he began politely, "But I think I can help"

One glance told Gibbs that he was airport security, very green airport security but Gibbs was running out of options, "Yeah?" he prompted, turning to face him,

"Yeah um...I had a woman, about five ft seven, brunette hair; brown eyes come through security with that name" He blushed at the attention being shown to him by both men "I remember her because her badge NCIS, set off the metal detectors and her boyfriend was packing some serious heat"

"Wait" Tony interjected, coming forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Gibbs, who was kept silent by the dread coursing through his body and the hope suffocating in his chest, "Boyfriend?"

"Yeah...um Dr Haswari his passport said, Israeli Mossad officer, they were travelling together and I saw them locking lips in the lounge when I was coming back from the bathroom"

Gibbs was dimly aware that Tony's mouth had actually fallen open in shock as the woman at the counter announced that Kate had boarded a plane to Israel two hours ago with Haswari by her side. They must have booked the tickets immediately after he had left, which meant that Kate, his dear sweet, reliable, sensible Kate, must have made an impulsive choice and trusted her gut.

Like he had done last night, except that her choice hadn't led to him.

Tony was arguing frantically with the woman, figuring out who they would have to talk to for the plane to be turned around and land back at Dulles. He was also dialling McGee, talking about alerting Director Morrow, using words like 'kidnapping' and 'international incident' but Gibbs only shook his head and ordered him to stand down. Even if the plane was to return to Washington, what then? Kate would get off, stand in the airport lounge and scream holy hell at Gibbs for his actions before booking a later flight, all that would get them was a large civilian audience and let the entire world know that Leroy Jethro Gibbs had lost to Ari Haswari.

That he had lost Kate.

Wearily he turned to his SFA who still had his finger on the dial button of his phone, half ready to disobey and make the call. Gibbs only shook his head,

"Come on DiNozzo," he looked out the large glass doors that showed the overcast Washington morning.

"Let's go home"

* * *

A/N- not really happy with this chapter, not entirely sure it captures gibbsness, let me know how I did


	5. Chapter 5

A/N- Someone explain something to me- my stats page says I've had over one thousand hits for my One Last time story but only seven hundred and twenty three visitors- so whats a hit?

* * *

It was midday when the plane descended into Ben Gurion airport. Kate stretched her arms and legs as the pilot welcomed them to Israel and more specifically Tel Aviv, rattling off little gems of information such as the time, weather, airport protocols and other facts that she ignored. Turning to Ari she saw that he wasn't paying attention any more than she was, instead he was doing what he had been doing for the last twelve hours, reading the book he had bought in Washington. If Kate had learnt anything during this flight, it was that once her travelling companion picked up a book, nothing could distract him. About seven hours into the flight, Kate had got bored and fidgety, she'd made a good sized dent into her reading, watched a movie and taken a crash course in Hebrew offered by the activity console in front of her, she'd dozed once the adrenaline had worn off and enjoyed the delicious meal served to her on porcelain with seasonal fruit and sorbet for desert. She'd even gone for several quick walks, visiting the bathroom and making friends with a lovely old lady who was knitting a blanket for her grandchild in Tel Aviv.

Aside from eating the meals when placed in front of him and using the bathroom, Ari hadn't moved from his position, a couple of times Kate had playfully poked him to 'make sure he was still alive', he had kissed her forehead and held her hand until she became too antsy again and turned away to study the sky outside.

When the wheels hit the tarmac and the plane cruised to a stop along the strip, Kate looked out the window to catch her first glimpse of Israel. She saw a deceptively warm looking day outside, with a large building that was Ben Gurion airport, numerous military and commercial aircraft and a skyline of buildings in the distance.

"Were you expecting to see sand and ancient ruins precious?" Ari teased gently as he closed his book and leaned over to whisper in her ear, she shivered at the pleasant contact and turned her head so that their lips brushed,

"No" she protested as their lips met in a kiss, seeing his shoulders shake with mirth, "Maybe"

He pecked her cheek before standing to join the numerous passengers pulling their luggage from the overhead lockers. Ignoring her attempt to carry her own bag, they ducked around the few other business class passengers and descended the stairs, stepping onto the tarmac.

The first thing she experienced when she landed on Israeli soil was the scent of the air, it smelled different than the air in D.C, and it reminded her of summer and beaches despite the cool day. The sky seemed unbelievably blue and the sun was even making an appearance, casting its bright but lukewarm rays onto the world below. She lingered, ignoring the pointed glances of the air hostesses while she studied everything around her. Ari stood a few feet away, waiting patiently for her even as he clearly didn't see her fascination with the homeland he had returned to so many times.

Then again, she wouldn't see anything special about Ann Arbour, Michigan, where she had grown up.

* * *

Kate tried not to be alarmed by the sheer number of guns being carried as she and Ari made their way through the airport, she had known that security was something Israel took extremely seriously, but it was unnerving to see boys who looked like they hadn't even finished puberty with rifles on their backs. Haswari didn't even seem to notice, holding her hand in his as he led her through the enormous, decorated and very crowded space that was the famous Ben Gurion airport.

"Forty-three" Kate told him as a sign in both Hebrew and English advised them to turn left for the baggage area; he turned to look at her curiously,

"If you're counting the men who have been 'checking you out' as you American's say, I assure you Caitlin, the number is a lot higher"

She playfully whacked him on the arm as they reached the baggage carousel, joining the numerous passengers from their plane, "The number of people I've seen armed since we arrived" she explained and he shrugged, "Then the count is possibly higher still, a large portion of airport security dresses as civilians and we always have a sniper or two hidden on the top levels- just in case"

Of course they did.

"Man I would kill to see your defence budget" she sighed enviously as the bags started parading on the conveyor belt; he chuckled and left her to go collect their luggage.

Which was when Kate found herself being approached by a woman in army fatigues flanked by two men, feeling for her passport to ensure that it was in her handbag, she cautiously opened her mouth in greeting but before she could even say a word the woman reached up and grabbed hold of her chin turning her face to the side to better expose Kate's bruise,

"He did not do this" the woman announced after a moment of inspection,

"If he had hit you, your nose would be broken" she finished her sentence by pressing her index finger against the swollen area, causing Kate to yelp at the pain and push the woman's hand away. She studied the woman in front of her, judging her to be roughly twenty-four to twenty-six years old, Israeli, with a svelte form and fragile face, her hair was tied back

"Who _are_ you?" Kate demanded, tapping her nose to find it had started bleeding again. Cursing under her breath she dug her handkerchief from her handbag and pressed it to her nostrils to stop the blood from running down her face.

"Officer Ziva David of the Mossad" Ari announced from behind her, "Who apparently feels the need to assault innocent civilians"

Ziva's delicate eyebrows rose ever so slightly at this comment, "Her face is bruised" she stated in pointed English which Kate belatedly realised they were speaking for her benefit.

"I noticed" he responded, slipping an arm about her waist, which caused Ziva's eyes to flicker,

"I assume the person responsible is dead?" she inquired politely, causing a teenage boy who had been standing close to them to stare in shock before hurriedly moving away.

"Not yet, but one can hope"

Kate ignored the feeling of ire that rose within her whenever Ari spoke of Gibbs in this manner, feeling particularly annoyed seeing as she had told him off, not even a day go, for helping to fuel the fire between himself and her former boss.

"You did not kill them?" the apparent shock caused Ziva's voice to go high and loud, reaching the ears of several travellers around them and Kate felt herself blush at the attention,

"Uh...maybe we should move this to somewhere more private before we alert security" she suggested to Ari who only then seemed to notice the stares, "She is right" he told their companions,

"After the last time we can hardly afford another confrontation with Gad and his men"

Ziva nodded and bushed past them both as she strode towards the airport entrance, the men falling into step behind them. Ari smirked and bent his head to place his lips to Kate's ear,

"Do not mind Ziva" he whispered, "She is not used to sharing me with other women"

Kate gave a small nod and studied the Mossad operative from behind, the confident stride that belied the image of the beautiful young woman. Most females worked to accentuate their beauty, whereas Ziva was dressed to conceal it, Kate guessed that she saw it as a burden, a reason for men to not take her seriously.

Realising her nose had stopped bleeding, she tucked the handkerchief into her pocket and focused as Ziva suddenly veered right, she smiled, "She's a bit like you" Kate teased, worrying when she saw Ari's smile falter, "Sometimes" he murmured,

"But you should not mention our relationship in public Caitlin"

She frowned in confusion, "Why not?"

He mulled the answer over before giving it to her, "Most of the Mossad has some idea that I am Eli David's son, but the rest of Israeli community does not and it would be best for it to be kept that way for now"

Her eyes widened slightly, she had been aware that there had been some secrecy behind Ari's conception, he'd told her as much before, but only now did she realise their holiday was over.

* * *

After picking up Tony from the fragile luggage desk, Kate carried the cage out through the doors before opening it to reveal an antsy dog, yapping loudly as Kate struggled to keep hold of her,

"He looks like a Columbian rat" Ziva announced, holding her hand out for the pet only to have her snarl in response,

"It's a _she_ and I liberated her from a marine murdering drug addict" Kate responded testily as she and Ari were led to a black SUV, "They're generally not known for owning poodles"

Ziva stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder with a questioning expression, "Liberated?"

Kate sighed, "Well...adopted after...the guy in question died in a fiery explosion"

To her surprise Ziva laughed and turned to Ari, "Okay, now I see why you like her"

"Oh good," Ari responded sarcastically, "My life is worth living again"

He took the sting out of the comment by kissing Ziva on the head as he opened the car door, ushering both women into the backseat, "I was going to drive" she protested,

"No" he slid in after them, beside Kate and Tony clambered on to his lap, "Caitlin already has enough reasons to run off screaming into the desert, I don't want to give her any more"

The two men climbed into the front and started the car, driving only a few minutes before Kate could see numerous differences between Israel and Washington outside the window.

"Well that is unfortunate because both Director Adir and Eli wish to speak with her" Ziva commented, causing Ari to start beside her,

"What, why?" he demanded so sharply Kate felt dread seep through her veins,

"Director Morrow of NCIS has already contacted Mossad, though there is no apparent sign that Caitlin here was kidnapped" Ziva threw her warmest smile yet at Kate,  
"He would like to personally ensure her safety"

"I resigned from NCIS before I left" Kate snapped, running her hand through her hair, "I don't want to speak to him, I came to Israel for a holiday"

"You resigned from NCIS?" Ari asked, clearly stunned by the news, "Caitlin..."

"Well I could hardly go back after earning _this_ now could I?" she pointed to the bruise on her face, "Besides, I didn't want to deal with any of them"

He reached up and cupped her cheek in his hand, letting her lean against him and smiled sadly,

"I am sorry Caitlin; I wish that we would be able to avoid all this"

"Wishes are like sharks" Ziva quipped, interrupting their moment, Kate looked back to her,

"Fishes" she corrected gently, but Ziva only frowned,

"Sharks _are_ fishes"

It was a long car drive.

* * *

Kate had managed to find some semblance of calm by the time the car slid past large ironwork gates and crawled into the driveway of a palatial manor in northern Tel Aviv. She even found comfort in the fact that unlike the two houses either side of where they now stood, the home was only two stories and while quite large and beautiful seemed modest by comparison.

"I thought you lived in the city" Kate stated as Ari helped her from the car, watching as Ziva bounded inside, past the guard at the French double doors,

"I do, this is the family home, also known as the David Damage Control Centre and the power seat from which Eli David rules- in secret of course" he whispered the last part and Kate giggled conjuring up an image of an aging English king waving a sceptre about impotently.

Kate smiled and whispered a quick thank-you to the guard holding the door open for her, realising a second later by his bewildered expression that either he didn't speak English or she had just made a faux-pas. She stepped through the doors and had to struggle not to gasp at the scenery before her. The floor of the entrance room was white marble with a small black stone fountain in the middle; the water trickling musically in the large area, the oak panelling was broken up by a various assortment of paintings, ranging from baroque to post modern. At the end of the room, past the doors that led to the rest of the house a grand staircase that led to the second floor, numerous closed doors and a continuation of the ground floor gallery.

"Eli uses the reserved exterior as a pretence of modesty for the state of Israel" Ari explained as he eased Tony from her arms and handed the snoozing puppy to a maid before guiding Kate to the first door in the entrance room, "It is only when one has become important enough to step inside the David home that you are supposed to realise how powerful he is"

"Not helping" she hissed as the door was opened and they stepped into an ornately decorated office, the focal point of the room was a large desk at which two men sat facing the door. Both were middle aged, both had grey hair and expensive suits. Kate smiled at them both as she and Ari approached to stand beside Ziva who was talking to the men in Hebrew. The more handsome of the two men, the one she guessed to be Eli David, looked at her with the piercing dark eyes that unsettled her, "Agent Todd I presume" he interrupted his daughter who stepped back and folded her hands, falling silent.

"Actually I resigned from NCIS, so technically I am a civilian" she corrected him pointedly and saw him raise his eyebrows in response before gesturing to the room's occupants with a casual wave of his hand,

"Leave us for a moment" he ordered and Kate felt Ari tense beside her as the rooms occupants, save the man who sat beside Eli, filed out obediently, Ari alone hesitating,

"Caitlin is here as a civilian" he argued quietly as the door closed on the three of them,  
"She is of no consequence to the Mossad"

Eli rose to his feet and tilted his head, "Perhaps, but she is of great consequence to NCIS and several more of our American allies who would like to ensure that she hasn't been kidnapped and subjected to...unpleasantness"

Kate felt insulted on Ari's behalf at that insinuation and opened her mouth to argue before the other elderly man held up his hand,

"Not that we personally believe Officer Haswari to be capable of such acts, however the American's do not seem to have a very nice opinion of our operative"

Ari nodded curtly even as Eli seemed puzzled by the unnecessary waste of words,

"Thank-you Director, I will wait outside" he murmured before turning to Caitlin,

"If you need me shout" he told her, squeezing her waist tenderly, "If you have even the slightest inkling that something is wrong..."

"We aren't going to run her through with a knife Ari" Eli interrupted, clearly impatient  
"It would be foolish for us to kill her now that the Americans know she is here and her blood would stain my carpet and ruin the clean floor"

Kate couldn't help but glance down to see the she was standing on an expensive Persian carpet with shining wooden floorboards visible beyond that. Gathering her resolve she lifted her head and smiled, "Go, I'll be fine"

She had been handpicked to protect the President of the United States. She would face anything they threw at her.

And she didn't doubt for a second that if she screamed for help that Ari would burst through that door to come to her aid, Director of the Mossad and his father or no, she instinctively knew that he would risk everything for her.

She only hoped he wouldn't have to.

* * *

A/N- Try reviewing you lot- I'm thinking of a dark Ziva Ari family story like Borgia, Medici, Tudors and Claudii family all mixed into one.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N- There we go

* * *

Kate felt a twinge of fear in her chest as she heard Ari shut the door behind him. His footsteps echoing as he moved away from her.

She ordered herself to continue meeting Eli David's gaze even though there was something in his forceful stare that made her want to look away.

After what seemed like the better part of an hour but may have only been three minutes something in his expression changed and suddenly his eyes seemed not _warmer_ but more like his childrens.

"Come" he beckoned her to the desk and she sat down, facing the two men.

Eli David was definitely the handsomer of the two. He had strong facial features that told her he had been a good looking young man who had aged well. He seemed like one of those men that young treasure hunting women went after and- if Ari's character was anything to go by- he was probably used to the opposite sex finding him charming.

But there were his eyes.

Gibbs occasionally had a similar look in his eyes, when he was hunting a target or preparing a sniper rifle. His eyes told her that he had seen plenty of death- and that some of it had been by his own hand.

Mentally shivering at that prospect she turned her eyes to the man she presumed to be Director Adir.

He was less frightening.

His face was unremarkable, his eyes were watery with age and his shoulders were thin and slumped. It was strange that he was the more powerful of the two men when Eli David physically appeared to be the strongest man in the room.

Then again, how many times had she been underestimated because of her appearance?

"Special Agent Caitlin Todd" Director Adir finally spoke, his voice hauntingly musical,

"Graduated top of your class, handpicked to serve the President of the United States. Resigned after helping foil a terrorist assassination plot and employed by NCIS exactly one hour later. Resigned from NCIS via email not even twenty-four hours ago"

She wasn't surprised they had this information. After all, if Tony had been ordered to pose as a terrorist and break into a base filled with armed, trigger happy federal agents she sure as hell would have given him as much Intel as possible. Then again Tony would have ignored the information and bounded into an extraordinary mess like a hyperactive puppy- hopefully Ari had more sense than that.

Not that she had seen any evidence of that so far.

"You can call me Kate" she suggested with a smile, trying to break the ice and the pattern that everyone in Israel seemed to have of calling her by her first name,

"Of course Miss Todd, now as you are probably aware, Officer Haswari has somewhat of a tense relationship with America..."

Kate could name ten people off the top of her head who wanted to shoot Ari- _fatally_.

"...and the situation that we now find the both of you in could be very harmful to Israel's relationship with the intelligence agencies that we previously had such a good repour with..."

"It shouldn't" Kate interrupted looking at both men purposefully, "I resigned from NCIS, I travelled to Israel with A-Officer Haswari as a free and willing civilian and I have no intention of causing trouble while I am here...I don't see what the problem is"

Director Adir bristled slightly at the interruption and Eli David shifted in his seat, after a moment's hesitation Adir spoke,

"So you are willing to swear that Officer Haswari did not use any force or compel you in any way to come to Israeli territory with him"

"Get me a bible and I'll swear on that" she promised, keeping her voice light and free of sarcasm. There was a quiet moment as both men before her contemplated this and then she found herself fighting the urge to smile as Director Adir stood and nodded to both her and Eli, as he took his leave,

"In that case I shall contact Director Morrow promptly and assure him of your wellbeing and safety"

* * *

Kate had an inkling of doubt and concern in her chest as the man made his way across the room, slow with age. She fought the instinct to remain silent and turned in her chair as she called out to him,

"Surely your word alone won't be enough, they'll need me to confirm it won't they?"

When Adir turned back to her, she understood then why he was the more powerful of the two in the room; the sheer cruelty in his eyes stunned her,

"And yet" he replied, hands behind his back, his sharp teeth exposed by his animalistic grin,

"They will have to make do with that"

He was playing a game- she realised that suddenly. Now he knew for sure she wasn't in the country against her will or in any danger of causing trouble for them, he would tease his American counterparts, dangling the possibility of her wellbeing before them. A clue here, a suspicion there, he would play games safe in the knowledge that no one woman was important enough for America to risk everything with Israel.

She blinked and her mouth hung open as she tried to process the manipulative character who turned his back on her and laid his hand on the doorknob before she shot out of her chair and stormed halfway across the room, glaring at the director in her fury,

"No" she ground the word out at the bemused man, "I did not come to Israel to become a plaything for a politician. You want to screw over NCIS and the other U.S intelligence agencies fine, you do that and get bitten in the ass when they realise- but unless you ring Director Morrow right now and assure him, using three code words that I give you, I will cause trouble and after being at NCIS for two years trouble is one thing I know how to do very well"

He glared at her, his face becoming hideous in his anger, "You dare threaten me?"

He stalked across the room and she nearly stepped backwards when Eli spoke from behind her,

"Careful Adir," he warned quietly, something seeming very close to a threat in his tone,

"If my son hears so much as a peep from this woman...I may be hard pressed to contain him"

Adir stopped in his tracks and Kate was baffled to see the colour leave the man's face, his mouth thinned and he was clearly judging the scene from every angle, trying to discover the most dignified way to backtrack before everything went to hell.

He settled for glaring at her as disdainfully as possible,

"Forgive me Eli, I simply forgot how rude American's could be" he sniffed before spinning on his heel and stalking from the room, the office door being slammed a little louder than necessary.

* * *

Kate realised belatedly that she was wringing her hands nervously, and that Eli David was standing next to her with an amused grin on his face,

"You are either very brave or very stupid" he stated as a matter of fact, "Nobody has spoken to Adir like you did for a very long time"

Considering the cruelty she had seen in the man's eyes she wasn't surprised. It had been her patriotism and affection for the people she had left behind that had driven her to stand up to him.

"He's afraid of Ari" she noted, her curiosity evident in her voice, and when he didn't answer immediately she was worried she had pushed too far, but out of the corner of her eye she saw him raising his hand to cover a yawn, clearly not feeling the same adrenaline rush as her.

"He has every reason to be" he told her, "Ari is the most successful mole within the short history of Mossad and the only sleeper cell we have been able to create where the benefits have outweighed the costs. However he is also one of Mossad's more volatile agents, having divided loyalties between Gaza and Israel and having joined us only as an obligation, not of choice. It has never been a matter of concern before now, Adir left his training and discipline to me and provided Ari was allowed to traverse freely between his two countries during his down time he never demanded anything of us"

He stopped and looked at her again in an appraising manner, as if trying to determine her worth,

"Your arrival however is a very interesting turn of events. My son has never gone to such trouble for a woman before; in fact I truly doubt he's ever bothered remembering their names for longer than twelve hours and now we find ourselves having to accommodate a woman in his and our lives. Adir has long since been worried about the power my family has in Mossad and Israel and has never conceded anymore to us than he absolutely has too, now though he will have to walk a very delicate line between giving Ari what he wants and the American's what they may demand"

"I certainly didn't see myself causing this much trouble" Kate joked, wanting desperately for the sombre mood to break, "At least not accidentally"

Eli shrugged, "Then you either underestimate your own worth or my son"

Worried that she had offended him she hurried after him as he left the office, "I'm sorry I didn-"

She nearly ran into his back as he stopped suddenly to avoid running into Ari who strode towards them,

"Tony became frantic when the maid tried to put her outside, she raced back into the study and when I went to pick her up, I found her clawing at this"

He held up what looked to be the remnants of an electronic device and Kate winced,

"I'm so sorry," she apologised, looking over Eli's shoulder "whatever that is I'll pay for it"

"It's a listening device Caitlin" Ari told her, his concern evident in his voice, "and who knows how long it has been there for"

"There's another one!" Ziva called from down the hall and they raced into a library to find Tony barking manically and clawing at the bookshelf.

Eli said something very loud in Hebrew which if Kate had to guess she would say was a swear word.

A bad one.

He continued speaking in his native language, barking curt orders that had Ari racing from the room and Ziva on her mobile phone. Kate crouched down and beckoned Tony over, letting her dog lick her hand as she rubbed her ears affectionately,

"Who's been a good girl?" she cooed, receiving a proud bark in response. Looking up when Ari returned to the room just as Ziva hung up her mobile phone, both reported to their father in rapid Hebrew and Kate got to her feet, cuddling Tony against her chest.

She watched as Ari, rubbing his mouth, wandered over and rested his hand atop her dogs head, clearly deep in thought.

"Do you know who planted the bugs?" she asked quietly as he led her to the window sill,

"They look pretty generic; no tell tale signs that would suggest which country they came from, likely cheap if they were emitting a signal that could be heard by your dog, we're more worried about how they got into the house rather than who planted them"

"Well that's easy" Kate pointed out, shifting Tony in her arms and unwittingly catching the attention of Eli and Ziva who listened in quietly,

"You said before your father liked to throw parties, I'm guessing those parties are pretty big with catering staff and floral arrangements, it would be nothing for somebody to sneak in here during all that commotion and plant the bugs then"

Ari contemplated her logic, placing his hands on her waist, "But why the house, why not bug the Mossad offices?"

She shrugged, "I know NCIS has jamming devices in place, I'm guessing Mossad would as well and..." she gave him a cheeky grin, "I couldn't help but notice that despite our liaison being deemed a 'possible risk' to Israeli security..." she struggled to hold back her laughter,

"That I was brought to Casa David instead of somewhere more professional- smart money says that this person is clued in enough to know that work doesn't always end at Mossad parking lot"

"She is right" Ziva announced before spinning on her heel and dancing out of the room, Eli tilted his head and contemplated Caitlin,

"She is intelligent" he allowed before following his daughter into the hallway.

Kate watched as Ari rolled his eyes, "Come my dear intelligent one" he beckoned sarcastically,

"I think we've had enough excitement for today"

Kate agreed with a yawn, leaning her head against Ari's shoulder as he guided her from the house,

"Are we going to your place now or am I expected to meet the Prime Minister at Ziva's?" she joked, returning the smile of the guard at the front door and crossing the yard to reach the car they had arrived in,

"No more meetings today" he promised, opening the back door for her and getting in the other side as Tony honoured her namesake by scrambling to ride shotgun, barking happily at the driver.

"Good" Kate murmured before closing her eyes.

In a few moments she was asleep, her head resting on Ari's leg while he stroked her hair.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N- Sorry sorry sorry, uni life is ridiculous at the moment, I've got so much reading it is absolutely insane. Although I can't help when reading about Mormon polygamy trying to come up with a story line where Tony is a mormon and married to Kate and Ziva at the same time- even though that is so OOC it's barely imaginable I reckon I might go there for fun if I get some time.

* * *

When Kate woke it was to find herself being carried upstairs in a white walled building. Disorientated she struggled and heard Ari whisper her name soothingly as they reached the landing where he set her on her feet,

"I didn't want to wake you" he explained as she yawned and looked around her, taking in the hallway with the simple wooden floor, large windows and plain walls,

"I should be trying to adjust to Israeli time" she pointed out, stroking his arm tenderly, seeing the chauffeur behind them carrying a placid Tony,

"Up here" he ushered her down the hall, past four apartments with consecutive numbers. Taking out his keys he opened the door of his apartment and led her inside.

From first glance Kate judged the apartment had been built in the sixties, it was large with a high ceiling that wasn't typical of buildings of later eras. It had since been altered though, the floors were the same as the hallway and the walls were white, but the windows were thick, double glazed-probably bulletproof- and there were several down lights in the short entrance hall alone. Walking through Kate found herself in a main living area, the kitchen taking up half of one wall with a small dining table by the marble bench and the rest of the room filled with bookshelves and two long leather couches. A quick inspection found two doors that led to Ari's bathroom and his laundry while Tony made herself at home in his bedroom, sniffing cautiously at his chest of drawers before jumping up onto his king size bed and curling up on the blue doona and sheets.

Shivering in the cold air, Kate felt a wave of relief as she heard Ari turn the heating on, she wandered back into the living room to see her suitcase being placed on the floor by the chauffeur,

"Todah" she murmured appreciatively as she joined her boyfriend in the kitchen, leaning against the bench as he looked in the fridge.

"Ziva's been using my fridge again" he announced disdainfully, removing a greasy, cheese stained paper wrapped meal and throwing it straight into the bin,

"I'd feed it to Tony but I am concerned killing your dog would damage our relationship"

"Well my killing you in retaliation certainly would" Kate quipped, hauling herself up to sit on the bench as he busied himself by inspecting the pantry, from which a ridiculous number of packaged noodles fell,

"Ah I forgot Passover was coming up"

"You celebrate Passover by forgoing healthy food?" she teased, as he kicked the packets back in and closed the door,

"No Ziva needs to get all the fermented foods out of her apartment so she 'sells' them to me, that would explain the irregularity I found in my bank account last week"

"I'm guessing your sister lives close by?" Kate guessed, still unsure what to make of Ari's younger sister, the woman who hadn't bothered to hide her animosity towards her.

"Directly across the hall" he answered quietly and Kate felt her eyebrows shoot up her forehead, in surprise at the information.

"Okay I couldn't even live in the same _city_ as my brothers without going insane and your sister lives _across the hall_?"

He sighed and leant forward, placing his hands either side of her thighs and looking straight into her eyes, "Caitlin...Ziva and I...I am not just her brother"

Kate lost a moment of concentration by sending a quick prayer to God that it was English being Ari's third language that made that sentence sound..._so wrong_.

"I held her in my arms when she was three days old and I promised that I would always do my best to protect her. When she was a year old I taught her to walk because Eli was on a mission and Adina was too busy. When she was two my name was her first word. Our entire lives the only people we could rely upon was each other, nobody else had the time or the inclination to show that they cared so...she is my control officer and we live directly across the hall from one another because..." he shrugged helplessly, seemingly unable to find the right words and Kate's heart went out to him,

"...she is my best friend" he finished and she cupped his face in her hands,

"Then she's my best friend too" she whispered, kissing him on the lips,

"Even if she does think Tony looks like a Columbian rat"

"Who is Tony?"

Kate and Ari sprang apart and their eyes flew to the hallway corner to where a dark woman stood in partial shadow.

* * *

At first glance Kate knew that this woman was Ziva David's mother.

She was beautiful. Her long curled hair raven black and streaked with gray fell just below her breasts. Her skin was the same tone as her daughter's and aside from the corners of her heavily lidded eyes was wrinkle free. Her features were more pronounced than Ziva's, her nose longer, her mouth fuller, but that only succeeded in reminding Kate of an Ancient Roman statue. She was of average height but appeared fit and still retained luscious curves.

It was her eyes that were surprising. They were the deepest, strongest blue that she had ever seen.

She came forward and Kate saw that she was wearing a bright orange blouse and petticoat with a deep red sari that would have appeared ridiculous on anyone else but looked stunning on her.

"Salaam Adina" Ari greeted, his tone empty of any warmth as he bent to kiss the medium stature woman who offered him a cheek,

"Salaam Haswari" she murmured, her voice carrying more than an Israeli accent, she turned to her and rose a perfectly sculpted eyebrow,

"So you are the one that has caused all this fuss" she noted with an air of innocent surprise, and Kate found herself chewing her lip nervously as she hopped down from the bench.

"Yes ma'm, Caitlin Todd"

She held out a hand and Adina laid her soft, manicured fingers on hers,

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet the woman of whom Ari has told me nothing and Eli nearly everything"

"Perhaps there was a reason for that" Ari snapped and Kate jumped at the harshness in his voice.

But Adina David only blinked and maintained her calm facade,

"Perhaps"

There was a sound at the open door and a man entered carrying something wrapped in butcher's paper and silently looked to Adina. She flicked her fingers and he left it on the counter before disappearing again,

"Eli is grateful for the actions committed by your dog Miss Todd, thanks to your pet we discovered several listening devices that might otherwise have gone unnoticed, as such..." she gestured to the package, "He requested that she be fed steak for dinner tonight"

Kate blinked at the still bleeding gift and wondered what the proper response was, "Ah thank-you?"

"You're very welcome, I have been assured that the steak is the best in Israel...I hope it is to your pet's liking"

With a final nod to Ari the woman spun delicately on her heel and swept from the room with a grace Kate doubted even Ziva had.

Ari followed Adina as far as the door before pushing it shut and dead bolting it. Kate headed to the bedroom and scratched Tony behind the ears to wake her up, receiving a yawn and long stretch before she obliged.

"I'll have to buy her a food bowl" she mentioned casually as Ari joined her at the edge of the bed, hesitating only a moment and judging the air safe before diving headfirst into the conversation,

"So that was Ziva's mother huh?"

He nodded curtly, "Adina de Rais, born and raised in Brittany. Daughter of a nobleman Gilles de Rais and his mistress-cum-wife Rachael Gustave, who survived the death camps only to be killed by her husband's drunk driving. She was then sent to be raised by her paternal grandmother and, once she graduated from school, pawned her mother's jewellery and came to Israel. She married Eli eight months later"

"And you don't like her" Kate added, sitting down on the bed and studying him as he stared at her with a mixture of hurt and anger in his expression. She knew the emotions weren't aimed at her, if anything her training in psychological profiling told her that they were left over from his childhood- a part he was reluctant to visit if his impersonal description of his father's wife was anything to go by.

"And I don't like her" he admitted, "There is something about her that I can't trust. She has never been anything but sweet and civil to me in her own way, despite her knowing for a fact that I am Eli's child...but, for some reason, even though after Hasmia's death she insisted I call her Ima, there is something there..." he broke off and shook himself slightly, giving Caitlin his charming smile,

"It does not matter, you have already met them and I doubt you will see them again, tomorrow I will take you to Bethlehem and you can see the famous stable"

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek before picking Tony up and carrying her into the kitchen, finding a plate for her and handing her the large- and likely- expensive dinner.

* * *

That night they ate Fata, or lamb and bread soup that Ari had liberated from the fridge in Ziva's apartment and discussed the best way for Kate to plan her sight-seeing, when they realised that Ari's knowledge of Christian attractions in Israel was piecemeal at best, she decided to go for a walk the next morning and see if she could find some pamphlets. Tony, who had taken up position on Ari's lap, would stay in the apartment, to be let out in the morning and when he and Kate returned in the hopes that she wouldn't ruin anything.

The only thing they disagreed on was sleeping arrangements.

"I'm just saying this is your apartment" Kate argued as Ari walked past her carrying several blankets,

"Which gives me final say, yes?" he pointed out, smirking as he began making a bed on the couch, but she was nothing if not stubborn,

"Nope," before he could react she kicked off her shoes and landed on the couch, pulling the blankets over her still dressed form to make a point. Tony, excited by the sudden movement barked and jumped up to join her, her happy face mirroring Kate's smug one.

Ari rolled his eyes, "You are my guest Caitlin, and as such I am allowed to insist that you take the bed"

She shook her head, "Nope, won't" she leaned back and sighed in pleasure at the comfort of the leather couch.

"Besides, isn't it suspect for an unmarried woman to enter the house of an unmarried man in Muslim culture?"

He frowned either surprised at her knowledge of Muslim culture or concern over the direction the conversation was taking, "Yes..."

"Then wouldn't it be even more scandalous for me to sleep in your bed?" she pointed out, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes,

"Firstly we are in a multi-cultural part of Tel Aviv where the rules are a lot more relaxed. Secondly I may be a Muslim but I was raised in a very relaxed household and lastly I can almost _hear_ my mother turning in her grave at the idea of me having a guest sleep on the couch"

Kate was only listening to this with half an ear; she was concentrating on changing into her pyjamas while keeping herself modestly under the blankets, although Ari having his eyes closed in frustration did help. She shrugged at his remark and settled back against the pillow,

"Sucks to be you" she murmured as she packed her clothes into her suitcase and pushed it to the side of the couch so she wouldn't trip over it if she got up in the middle of the night, snuggling down into the couch she closed her eyes, hearing him as he sighed and crouched down before her,

"Caitlin if you are worried about our relationship being forced by my trying to get you into bed"

Kate stopped him by reaching over and cupping his cheek in her hand, she could tell even without completely opening her eyes that he was worried. Ari and Gibbs were similar in the fact that neither of them could be called long-winded by any stretch of the imagination. It was only when Ari was nervous about something that his English became over formalised and tense with his Palestinian accent breaking through his educated English tones.

"No" she yawned, "I'm not, I'm just..." she blinked and dropped her arm tiredly, "Just trying to be less of a damsel in need of a knight in shining armour"

He smiled and leaned over to brush his lips against hers "Good night Caitlin"

Ten minutes later, his laughter broke through the dark apartment when Tony abandoned her owner for the comfort of the bed. Curling up on the pillows beside him, leaving Kate to glare in mock fury,

"Bitch"

* * *

A/N- Where did the name de Rais come from you ask? Google Gilles de Rais, yeah I find some weird stuff on the net.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N- I know I spoke of evil authors who leave their readers hanging for weeks on end but in my defense I have a ridiculous amount of reading for uni and projects that go with it. I am only doing this now instead of writing my essays because I just saw S8 ep 1 and was so inspired. Anywho this is a short chapter and will have plently of fleshing out next chapter, along with some day to day drabble just to fill out Kate's life in Israel.

Once again- Thank-you for your lovely reviews.

* * *

Caitlin Todd had been enjoying the blissful nothingness of sleep when she suddenly found that she couldn't _breathe_. She tried to inhale through her nose but the passage was blocked and when she opened her mouth she found something covering it.  
Waking in a panic she thrashed around wildly before her legs came into contact with something and the blockages were removed.

"Oh good" a familiar voice sounded from her side, "You're up"

Waiting for her heartbeat to slow down, she focused her blurry vision on the impeccably dressed grey haired man perched on the edge of the couch.

"You tried to kill me!" Kate cried in horror, pulling herself towards the arm and away from Eli David.

He shook his head and waved a hand at her, "Don't be foolish Officer Todd, killing you would damage Israel's relations with America, cause international scandal and would cause my son...and perhaps even my daughter to sever all ties with Mossad, I simply hoped to wake you up"

Kate had to open her mouth a few times before she was capable of putting her thoughts into words, at which time her training in psychology and her bad mood decided to label Ari's father as a recreational sociopath.

"Why didn't you just shake me if you wanted to wake me up?" she asked and he shrugged,

"That might have hurt you" he answered simply before bending down with a large smile on his face to scoop up Tony,

"Good morning my dear friend" he turned her onto her back to scratch her stomach,

"And how is my favourite animal today?"

Tony barked loudly, enjoying the attention and Kate jumped, tensing at the piercing sound. Bleary eyed, she looked around the apartment and belatedly realised that Ari wasn't there,

"Where...?" she began, running a hand through her hair before seeing a piece of paper dangling from Tony's collar, Eli David ripped it off and handed it to her,

_Caitlin, _

_Have gone for a run, will be back at seven, _

_A.H_

Yawning, Kate swung her legs over the side and freed herself from the tangle of blankets, padding into the kitchen and opening the fridge to look for breakfast before Eli David's words came back to her,

"Hey," she muttered, closing the door and turning to face him, "Why did you call me Officer Todd?"

"Because Mossad operatives are called Officers" he casually informed her while manoeuvring Tony's legs back and forth like an odd form of freestyle,

"Well yeah" Kate allowed, resting her hands on the bench, "But I'm not a Mossad operative"

"Yes you are" he corrected, "As of eighteen hundred hours last night, mazel tov"

It took all of her skill to try and follow the conversation she was currently having with the Deputy Director of the Mossad, the head of the Kidon unit while he fussed over her dog.

"Nobody spoke to me about joining the Mossad" she told him only to have him gesture nonchalantly to a large file perched against the fruit bowl, "You are a psychological profiler and we are in desperate need of profilers since the majority of the unit encountered an...unfortunate incident"

Something in those two words filled Kate with dread, "Well, regardless..." she ploughed on,

"I'm only going to be in Israel for a short time, so I wouldn't be of much use to you"

"You'll be in Israel for a year at the very least" he corrected her, "Otherwise the classes will go to waste"

"Classes?"

"I've enrolled you in Hebrew classes at a local language centre only a few minutes' walk from the Mossad base, most of their students are current or future Mossad operatives and as such they grant us generous discounts, you're classes start at nine every morning and will go through til six. They will continue for the rest of the year at which point you will hopefully have gained enough knowledge of the language to be able to read profiles that haven't been written by our officers liaising in English speaking countries..."

"Okay, hold on a second!" Kate ordered, holding up her hands, "I'm sorry, but I did not come to Israel to be Mossad, I am still an American citizen and I don't particularly want to be facing treason charges when I get home...and I came here for a holiday not to spend five days a week studying a language and my free time going over profiles because your previous profilers were killed..."

"We don't know for sure that they were killed" Eli interjected but Kate waved him off,

"I don't care, I came here on whim to spend time with your son, I'm sorry if you thought I was job hunting, but I'm not looking for any work at the moment"

"That is a shame" he replied before she even had the chance to take a breath,

"Because I am offering you the chance to be brilliant"

Kate blinked, caught by his words; he waited a few heartbeats until he knew he had her attention before continuing.

"You are intelligent enough now, yes, for a female American agent, but you are essentially monolingual, your fighting skills are decent but not exceptional and you appear to only have pushed yourself until you surpassed the men you were competing with. I am offering you the chance to become outstanding, I don't have one person under my command that speaks less than three languages and even the paper pullers are highly trained in mixed martial arts. We can work around your American loyalties without issue but only if you agree to challenge yourself as you have never dared to before"

Kate had slowly begun walking towards him, unthinkingly picking up the file as she went, never breaking eye contact with the man, by the time he had finished talking she had sat down beside him and was transfixed by his voice,

"Pushers" she whispered and he frowned,

"Pardon?" he asked and she blinked,

"Its paper pushers" she amended absently, opening the file and reading quietly over the pages, it contained the information for her course, the starting time, the break time, the progress she would make by the end of the year and an option to continue and gain a certificate if she so wished.

It looked intensive and exhausting; likely she would have to throw all her concentration into mastering the language. She would have the weekend break but with a part time job profiling for Mossad who knew how much time she would actually have to herself?

He was offering her the opportunity to be brilliant.

She didn't look up as Ari returned, welcomed by a hilariously happy Tony, he came in and seeing his father, asked him what he was doing at his home.

"He brought something for me to sign" Kate explained, the corners of her mouth twitching in the semblance of a smile as he turned the page in her hand to show her a contract with her name and the date at the bottom, he drew a pen out of his shirt pocket,

"Todah" she whispered as she scribbled her signature along the bottom of the page.

_

* * *

__One month later_

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" Ari questioned her again as he packed his duffel bag, causing Kate to look up from the bed where her textbooks and sheets were spread around her, Tony curled at her back, snoozing away contentedly while she struggled to write about her favourite childhood vacation spot in Hebrew.

"I doubt I'll even notice you're gone" she quipped, groaning as she belatedly realised that she had used the wrong symbol and picked up her dictionary,

"Promise me you will eat and sleep Caitlin" he responded in kind, climbing onto the bed to press a kiss to her jaw, "or at the very least, remember to feed Tony, Allah only knows what will happen to us both if Eli fears she is being underfed"

Kate sniggered and tilted her head back to kiss him on the lips, he slid his tongue into her mouth and she began to lean back towards the pillows when Tony suddenly barked, growling at the intrusion upon her space,

"Oh buzz off!" Kate snapped whacking her pet lightly as the animal waddled to the side of the bed, having gained a few pounds since Eli David had decided to have steaks delivered to the apartment daily for the dog, Ari noting drily that it was the most affection he had ever seen the man display towards any living creature.

Her thoughts were driven from her rapidly widening spoilt creature as Ari kissed her neck and she released her dictionary to run her hand through his hair.

They fell back against the pillows and Kate shivered as she felt his weight on her, enjoying the sensation, they hadn't got round to having sex yet but maybe...

"Ari, your car is downstairs"

They started and broke apart as Ziva marched into the apartment, looking about her curiously before finding them,

"You don't have time for sex if you want to beat the queue" she stated as matter of fact, coming into the bedroom while Kate and Ari tried to subtlety fix themselves, Kate blushing the deepest red physically capable,

"Americans might be prudes but they appear to want a decent length..." she continued but Ari held up a hand to silence her,

"We get it Ziva" he told her in a mixture of Hebrew and English. On Eli David's suggestion, the family had begun mixing Hebrew into their sentences when they spoke with Kate in the hopes of furthering her learning.

Ziva shrugged, not the least bit put out by her brother's abrupt attitude, she turned to Kate and tilted her head, her brow furrowing with the mixture of annoyance and incomprehension that she always seemed to feel around her,

"Have you even begun packing yet?" she demanded and Kate looked up as she bent to pick her dictionary off the bedroom floor,

"Oh...I'm not going to Gaza with Ari" she assured her, flicking through the thin pages until she found the word she wanted,

"I know, you are going to the family home with me" Ziva rolled her eyes,

"_Honestly _these Americans!"

Kate's eyes shot to Ari but he only shrugged as he zipped up his duffel bag,

"I was not aware of this Caitlin" he apologised, slinging the bag over his shoulder and she threw her book down in frustration,

"You know normal families _discuss _things with one another" she snapped, getting off the bed and waving her arms to emphasize her point, "They don't just _decide _things and assume everyone else will find out through ESP or not have an opinion in the matter"

Both siblings remained quiet through her rant and when she was done, Ziva blinked,

"Perhaps you should date one of these families then instead of ours?"

Groaning in frustration Kate stormed past Ziva and into the bathroom, followed closely by Ari,

"You're doing well precious" he congratulated her as she splashed cold water on her face,

"Most women would have run off screaming or been committed by now"

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and she leaned back into his embrace,

"It's not that I don't like your family Ari" she began, "I mean your father is a trainee psychopath, Adina reminds me of Empress Livia from a bad seventies drama and Ziva has absolutely no comprehension of social boundaries but they are _interesting_ for lack of a better word. I just wish they would verbally convey their ideas to me"

"You should date an Italian family" Ziva suggested from the bedroom, "A Catholic one, that would help you overcome your sexual prudence"

Raising her hands in front of her to mimic strangulation, Kate felt Ari's body shaking with laughter,

"Try not to kill her" he whispered in her ear, kissing her cheek before leaving,

"I will miss you" he called from the front door and she nodded, "Miss you too, call me if you can!"

She took a detour through the rest of the apartment before re-entering the bedroom to find Ziva holding up her NCIS t-shirt,

"Why do you feel the need to proclaim your position, is that not dangerous?"

Kate sighed; it was going to be a long week.

* * *

"Shalom Tony!"

Kate had only just stepped into the hallway of the David home when Eli had emerged from his office causing Tony to run and jump into his arms,

"Did you miss me?" he asked the dog and Kate barely remembered to smile and thank the butler who took her bags,

"Hi Eli" she greeted pointedly and the man looked up,

"Shalom Caitlin" he responded, looking past her to Ziva, "I see you decided to bring her as well?"

Kate floundered before realising Eli wasn't addressing her, the younger woman merely shrugged, "Ari is in Gaza for the week and I figured that if Tony was coming to stay, Caitlin could come as well"

"That is a wondrous idea" Adina called from the staircase, she glided down and swept towards Kate with open arms, "Shalom my darling, I have missed you dearly"

Kate smiled and accepted the kiss on the cheek, fighting the urge to call bull on the regal socialite's lies.

"Come" she ushered in a motherly manner, "Let me show you to your room, I set it up especially, with everything you could possibly need...but if I left anything out you mustn't hesitate to tell me. I want you to be well prepared for tonight"

Kate frowned, "What's happening tonight?"

Adina gave her a warm yet malicious grin,

"You'll see"


	9. Chapter 9

A/N- Time jump will occur next

* * *

"Shakespeare?" Kate asked incredulously as she sat on the guest bedroom floor,

"Yes, Shakespeare" Ziva elaborated, having entered the room without hesitation or even knocking only seconds before,

"Director Adir arranged for the family to go tonight, we leave at seven"

The message was delivered but strangely enough Ziva didn't leave in the abrupt manner Kate had become used to, instead she crossed to the large bay window and sat down, tilting her head slightly to study her. It was the way she did this that revealed the David family resemblance. Whenever Eli, Ari, or Ziva were curious about something they held similar positions, their eyes narrowing slightly as they revised the situation until they were satisfied. Kate wasn't unnerved, she had often seen Gibbs do the same thing, except with wider eyes and usually when faced with modern technology, with the clear intention of meeting it with violence if it failed to obey his orders.

"Adina had already ordered you an outfit to wear to the theatre" Ziva said suddenly, breaking the silence though her voice was barely more than a whisper. Kate looked up from her book in surprise and blushed at the unexpected gift,

"Uh...that was very kind of her...unnecessary...but kind" she stammered, stunned by the generous act and embarrassed that Ari's step-mother had thought so little of Kate's choice of clothing that she had felt the need to buy her a proper outfit,

"My mother does not do things out of kindness" she corrected, getting off the window seat and sinking to the floor, crossing her legs to mimic Kate's position, "Every move she makes is calculated to bring political or social advantage to both our family and her, she is not kind"

Blinking in surprise at the matter of fact manner in which Ziva divulged her mother's behaviour and thought processes, Kate found herself acknowledging the slight discomfort she had often felt around Eli's wife who, even when her husband had picked up Tony and sat her on his lap to feed her from his plate at the dinner table, had not bothered to show the least bit of interest in the dog.

"If what you say is true" Kate began, choosing her words carefully, "Then why is she spending money on me?"

In the last month Kate had learnt that although Ari- and by default her- spent a few nights a week at the David home and had attended a few afternoon teas there, Ari and Adina seemed to have an unspoken agreement to stay out of each other's way. When they did interact in public it was with amazing politeness and kindness but when the doors closed they barely acknowledged each other's presence. Once Kate had sat in the same room as the two of them for three hours and had watched over the top of her book as Adina had flitted around the room, refilling the flower vases, checking on Ziva and Eli's chess game, making several social calls and hand writing invitations as Ari sat at the desk checking medical records. Adina had given the desk a wide berth, ignoring the wilting flowers that sat in the vase there and Ari hadn't looked at her once.

Yet strangely enough, Adina fussed over Kate more than she did her own daughter. When she heard that Ari had introduced her to his Mossad students and friends, she invited Kate to attend Swan Lake with her. When Kate mentioned that Ari had taken her to Bethlehem, Adina arranged for her to have a tour of Herod's palace. She met Kate at the language centre twice a week to take her to lunch and one Sunday morning had even accompanied her to church, sitting there with a benevolent smile on her face as the unfamiliar ceremony was performed. She'd had less of a relationship with her own mother than she had with Adina and she couldn't help but wonder at the exuberant act of friendship being shown to her by the older woman. Ziva had become accustomed to having her around and treated her as an acquaintance and Eli made it clear that her only endearing feature was Tony, so Adina's mothering seemed at odds with the polite but otherwise indifferent manner of the rest of the family.

Ziva opened her mouth and closed it again before addressing Kate,

"My father knew for months before you arrived that you and Ari were dating" she began, shrugging when she saw her shocked demeanour, "He assumed the relationship was of no consequence, it in no way affected Ari's work and gave us no reason to be concerned. Bringing you back to Israel however, that did change matters. Eli and I had always assumed that Ari would never introduce any woman to us, that we would only find our through chance when he got married and had children- or that like me he would never get married" she shrugged again, her hands in her lap, looking like a teenager, except that her words were those of an adult who had long since made a life changing decision. "You being here, you being here with _Ari_ and associating with _us_...it gives my father reason to believe that Ari is coming to accept his life and therefore will be of use to the David ambitions..."

"Ambitions?" Kate interrupted, finding the word a little melodramatic, but Ziva only nodded,

"My father and uncle decided in their early thirties that both they and their children would work in separate agencies so as to prevent competition but that they would both become Directors. My uncle Mordecai is already Director of Shin Bet and all that remains is for my father to become Director of Mossad. Having me as an elite member of Kidon helps his claim and as Ari is one of the most successful trainers in Mossad, his acquaintance with us helps our father slightly..."

Kate quickly caught up to Ziva's train of thought and finished for her,

"But if word were to get out that Ari was in fact Eli's son, his claim to the Director's chair would be even stronger"

Ziva nodded and patted Kate on the knee in an unusual display of affection before getting up and bounding to the door, "That is essentially why Adina is being nice to you" she announced,  
"She wants to be the Director of Mossad's wife but for that to happen she needs people to start talking about how motherly she is acting toward Ari's girlfriend and to eventually realise that she is treating you like she would a daughter-in-law. From there the work will write itself"

"Do itself" Kate corrected as Ziva disappeared down the hallway, her boots loud on the wooden flooring, "It's either the book/story will write itself or the work will do itself!"

"Be quiet Caitlin" Eli admonished from downstairs, "Tony is trying to nap"

Kate rolled her eyes, "Weirdos"

"Caitlin!"

"I heard you" she shouted back

* * *

"Remember everyone" Adina sang as the Rolls Royce slid to a stop before the large sculpted building,

"We are here to have fun, socialise and to be _polite_," she finished with a glare at Ziva,

"That means out weapons are to stay holstered and not aimed at the actors or fellow audience members"

Kate snorted in disbelief before looking across the seat to see Ziva scowl and tug at her new black gown, pulling the silk down over her ankle strapped gun. Eli was fidgeting with his cuffs and nearly shot out of the car when the chauffeur opened the door for them. Adina who was next to exit waited for the driver to hand her from the car, turning in her gold matronly outfit to give Kate unnecessary help from the vehicle, giving her a quick brush down when she emerged into the twilight air. Ignoring the display, Kate looked around to study the numerous other cars arriving, seeing the occasional limousine amongst those in the large parking lot, opening to reveal several well dressed men and women, all smiling and running up to greet friends.

It was a lot like a White House dinner,

"Where's our limo?" she asked in a side whisper to Ziva as the younger woman tossed the curls that had escaped from her chiffon out of the way, the younger woman gave the idea a disdainful sniff,

"Limos are gauche, new money" she explained as they followed Adina and Eli towards the large art deco style doors, "Adina refuses to let us have one and Eli points out that having that many important people in one car is just asking for it to be bombed"

Kate covered her hand to hide her laugh and found herself enjoying the evening already. Even if by some act of evil, Shakespeare suddenly became boring for her, Eli and Ziva would provide entertainment with their unorthodox outlooks.

Except that Eli and Adina had come to a sudden stop at the bottom of a beautiful staircase and beside her, Ziva had tensed. Following their gaze, Kate looked up to see Director Adir, descending towards them very slowly, two handsome women on his arms.

The first Kate assumed was his daughter, her long hair was dyed platinum blonde and chemically straightened, her eyebrows were waxed within an inch of their life and the shape of her nose did not exist in nature, her lips had been painted the shade of plum and her dress was such a short, sparkly blue that Kate wondered if she planned on going clubbing later.

The other woman was a pretty red head, who, aside from her dress exposing a flushed chest, looked simple and stately. She gave Kate a polite smile as the trio approached and Kate returned it automatically,

"Shalom Eli" Director Adir greeted, wheezing slightly with old age,

"Shalom Director" Eli muttered, shifting slightly, blocking Kate's view of the man. Blinking she went to move around him before she felt Ziva tug on her gown and looking down at the woman, saw her gesturing to the bar. As Ziva only drank sparingly at dinner and outrageously when out clubbing, she realised this was an escape attempt and not a booze craving. Getting the hint she made to follow before they found the red head stepping into their path and giving them both a wide grin,

"Shalom Ziva" she greeted in a happy tone that didn't quite cover the falsity.

In an instant Kate knew this woman was an American, her accent gave her away immediately. Seeing something of her own country, her own culture in this stranger puts her at ease, even though she can see a muscle tensing in Ziva's neck.

"Shalom Jen" Ziva muttered, flinching as the woman bustled forward to press cheek to cheek.

When it became clear that Ziva had no intention of introducing her, Kate stepped forward and offered her hand,

"Caitlin Todd" she explained, her American accent distinct and she continued,

"It's lovely to meet another ex-patriot"

The words had been a joke, a bit of friendly banter to break the ice but the stranger doesn't give a polite laugh or even a smile, instead she raises an eyebrow,

"So you aren't returning to the U.S anytime soon then?"

Kate snapped her hand back and blinked in surprise at the abrupt question but tried to shake it off as a possible language/cultural barrier. Perhaps the woman hadn't spoken English in a while,

Either way she was clearly waiting for an answer,

"Uh, no" Kate replied, trying to stay polite and well-mannered, "No...I'm in Israel for a little while yet"

"That's not very loyal to NCIS now is it?" the woman retorted, her tone so reminiscent of the Sunday school teacher of Kate's childhood that she wanted to reach out and pull her ridiculously coiffed hair. Ziva interrupted this urge by leaning in close and whispering to her,

"Special Agent Jenny Sheppard, used to work under Gibbs" she explained quickly and Kate felt a flare of anger at the mention of her ex-boss,

"Well yeah" she snorted, "She's a red head so I knew she'd been under Gibbs command at some point"

Unbeknownst to her, the rest of the party, including Director Adir had been moving towards them, so Eli and Adina had been standing right behind her when she had made that comment. Hearing Eli smother his laughter behind her made her own shoulders shake with amusement, though the noise was cut off by what sounded like Adina stomping on his foot.

"Well" Kate rounded up, studiously ignoring the bright red blush colouring Agent Sheppard's face, "When you're in Washington next, tell everyone I said hi and tell Gibbs my nose healed up nicely"

With that she spun on her heel, turning away from the woman and nearly colliding with Eli and Adina as they parted to get out of her way, Ziva wrapped an arm about her waist to keep pace as they headed towards the staircase that she presumed led to the theatre.

Kate couldn't help but notice the way the three of them seemed to be unwittingly shielding her, preventing anymore Gibbs loyalists from jumping her in public areas.

She was touched.

The David's wanted to protect her. The David's were her family now.

* * *

"What did you do?"

Those words are shouted at him from across his basement floor, by a man that has never dared question him before and only does so now because he realises that he has committed a crime beyond any known proportion to date.

Gibbs doesn't immediately answer but turns back to his boat to continue sanding, Tony doesn't accept this though and marches across the room, brining his palm down on the wood with a resounding smack.

Such disobedience should be met with punishment, but instead Gibbs only puts down his sander and turns to the younger man,

"There a reason you did that DiNozzo?"

Of course there was a reason, they both knew that but this is one of those times when the emotionally damaged and socially stunted men will have to explain every action and define every word.

"One week you and Kate are having coffee and laughing together..." Tony begins stretching every tone and emphasising every nuance, "The next we're breaking into her home to find that she's run off with Ari Haswari to Israel and is now employed by the Mossad and playing house with the head of the Kidon unit. Now something happened and I've eliminated everyone else as a suspect which leaves just you and me"

And Tony would never have driven Kate away. The unspoken statement lies between the two of them, unintentionally but a sacred truth nonetheless. Tony was irritating, he invaded the privacy of his colleagues and occasionally interrupted their work by throwing gummy bears but underneath it all was the knowledge that he loved each and every one of them and would willingly place himself in harm's way to protect them.

He was a better man than Gibbs could ever be.

A sigh of defeat escaped him, emptying his lungs and leaving him breathless and feigning death at the moment of his judgement.

"I..." his mouth was too dry, he swallowed and tried again, "the night before she left, I got a gut feeling, went to her house...I found her in Haswari's arms"

Tony flinched, the image of his surrogate sister, the title Kate had adopted in a moment of unthinking speech, in the arms of a man known for his ruthlessness and cruelty both frightening and disgusting him. But Gibbs had a confession to make and couldn't be stopped, not now,

"Ari left and we fought about him being there...it wasn't the first time, I could tell that and then...I struck her"

He finishes the sentence with little more than a whisper, his eyes focused on a point in the distance, seeing the exact moment that he had destroyed everything with Caitlin Todd.

Tony doesn't say anything. Likely he had long since suspected the heinous crime, the police report from Dulles airport had mentioned bruising on Kate's face- but he had still needed to hear the admission from Gibbs own mouth. He had needed confirmation that Kate's fleeing had been justified.

Turning quietly on his heel, the younger man padded up the steps and turned into the laundry, leaving Gibbs to wallow in his guilt.

It was another three hours before his next visitor. Long enough for Gibbs to imagine that word of his crime had hit the rumour mill but still he was surprised when he looked up to see a long-lost lover, still lugging the airplane carry-on bag he'd bought her in Paris, exhaustedly descending the stairs,

"Jethro" she yawned, all but collapsing onto the work table, and taking a clumsy sip of the bourbon,

"Jen" he greeted, putting down his tools and walking over to the half-asleep woman,

"Thought you might need...ear" she murmured sleepily and he stepped forward so she could rest her head against his chest,

"Oh yeah," he supported the back of her head with his hand, "Might even need two"


	10. Chapter 10

A/N- I should really be studying for exams instead of writing this, but I reckon it might be worth it for the reviews.  
Or not.

* * *

_3 years later_

"You are a sneaky, evil bastard Leroy Jethro Gibbs" Jenny Sheppard scolded as she checked her appearance in her compact mirror, moving toward the basement windows to get better lighting.

"That's not an affirmative Jen," he pointed out, throwing her a smile as he bent over to paint the hull of the boat.

"I haven't decided yet" she teased, admiring the way the diamond earrings sat in her lobes, wincing as she accidentally placed pressure on her fingertips.

"Well that's okay" he replied, "Those are conditional, you don't get to keep them if you say no"

Jenny laughed and turned back to the worktable, almost dropping the mirror in the effort to ease the strain on her fingers.

A few weeks ago, she had been attacked in an alleyway by a misogynist who'd been targeting Marines. When she'd reached for her gun, he had knocked her to the ground, picked up a brick and slammed it down onto her hands.

The doctors' had warned her that it would be several months, if not years before she would be able to retain the dexterity she'd had and that wearing jewellery would be out of the question.

Hence the reason that when Jethro had proposed to her ten minutes ago, he had done so with diamond earrings.

Teasing him now, she gave him a quick shrug, "That's okay, your job is conditional, you don't get to keep it if you take them back"

He laughed and put down his paintbrush, "Isn't that harassment Jen?"

"Not when Cynthia's told half the Navy Yard about walking in on us on my couch" she retorted, the habitual blush caused by the memory coming to her face, it was interrupted however, by the sound of her phone ringing, looking at the screen she cursed,

"I've got to go, I'll be home later" she promised, quickly kissing him on the cheek as she picked up her handbag and raced out of the basement.

"Hey!" Jethro's outraged tone called her bag and she stuck her head around the laundry door,

"Is that a yes or not?"

She rolled her eyes, "I'm wearing them aren't I?"

* * *

Schmuel Rubenstein, cousin to the Director of Mossad and the Israeli ambassador to America, sat at the tiny cafe just outside the Navy Yard, keeping an eye out for the familiar red-head he had contacted just an hour before. When she finally did arrive, it was in that hurried- out-of-breath- manner so many American women had, as though the idea of being five minutes late was dreadfully distasteful to them.

And yet none of them seemed willing to start getting ready five minutes earlier so as to prevent this.

She sat down next to him, "Shalom" she greeted, butchering the greeting with her terrible accent, not even attempting to mimic Israeli tones, but he could forgive her for this, because unlike the majority of the United States intelligence, Jenny Sheppard actually spoke Hebrew, she didn't just parrot a few words but could converse fluently.

"Shalom" he returned, picking up the tea pot in front of him and silently offering it to her, she shook her head,

"What was so important that it couldn't wait til office hours?"

Schmuel inwardly winced at the coarse manners; he had been raised for so much better than this.

The sixth child of impoverished parents, once it had become clear that Uncle Adir- as he had known him- was unable to have children, he had been sent to live with him in Ramat Aviv.

From being overlooked and forced to wear hand-me-downs, Schmuel had suddenly found himself being given the best life had to offer. He had attended the most prestigious schools and socialised with the children of Israel's elite.

Including Ziva and Tali David.

When he was a teenager, Adir had begun pushing him towards the elder David sister, prompting him to invite her over, to buy her gifts, to call her. It hadn't taken much for Schmuel to realise that his uncle wanted an alliance between the two families and though the David's weren't as esteemed as Adir or even the Rubenstein's, only an idiot would be blind to the fact that in ten or so years they would be a name to be reckoned with.

Unfortunately nobody had explained to the David children how monumental this honour was.

Ziva barely noticed Schmuel was alive and when she did, she'd treated him as an annoyance and avoided him. Tali was polite, kind but couldn't be bothered with him when she had so many other friends. Haswari, whom he'd first thought was the David's foster child, had made the most effort to be friends with him, but when he realised that Schmuel couldn't play soccer, had no interest in medicine or biology and thought Hemingway was a street, he'd made excuses to stop talking to him.

Eventually Adir had been forced to abandon the plan when Eli had approached him, on Ziva's request to ask that Schmuel stop following her. It had been humiliating for them both, and Schmuel had felt the poisonous resentment begin to roast in his stomach.

How dare a bunch of low-born brats reject _him_! Just because they were pretty and smart and well-loved, they thought they had the right to snub their betters?

That had been well over a decade ago and Adir's predictions had been right. The David family were becoming a powerhouse within Israel and thanks to the arrival of the American they had become even stronger.

In the first year of Mossad employment, Caitlin Todd had barely spoken Hebrew but had made up for it with such thorough psychological profiling that the board of Directors actually congratulated Eli David on having 'poached' her.

At the beginning of the second year she had impressed many by enrolling in Arabic language classes and teaching psychological profiling and Christian culture classes at Mossad. She'd associated with several Catholic groups and charities in Tel Aviv and eased the sense of marginalisation the Christians felt within the Jewish majority and thus increasing the non-governmental donations to Mossad. She'd also become a regular at the social events with Adina David on one arm and, usually, Ari Haswari on the left.

Eventually the shocked socialites of Israel had put two and two together and realised that Haswari was a member of the David family, likely an illegitimate son. Far from damaging their power base though, like Adir and Schmuel had hoped for, having such a successful officer and his girlfriend become acknowledged members of the family had only increased Eli David's prestige- to the point where outside forces were beginning to believe that he would succeed Adir when the man finally retired.

That was what had sealed Schmuel's enmity.

The Directorship of the Mossad should belong to him. To Schmuel Rubenstein- Adir's heir. That was why he had been sent to school in England rather than risk his life in the IDF, that was why he had been kept in the offices, given the most privileged stations instead of doing fieldwork. Where Eli, Ari and Ziva had served in the army and then spent years toiling away in Kidon and working their way through the ranks, he- Schmuel had obviously been labelled for better things.

And he wasn't about to let a bunch of Arab-loving dirt bags get in the way of that.

Brought out of his thoughts by a chilly gust of winter wind entering the cafe, Schmuel smiled at the Director of NCIS and realised he had only taken a second of time to muse upon years and years of bitterness.

"Officer Rotem, the Mossad ambassador to America has been forced to return to Israel...family matters" he explained hastily seeing the look of concern on the woman's face. It was becoming popular to mistrust every word that fell from a Mossad operative's mouth and assume murder.

"And I wondered if you might have any suggestions for his replacement" he finished by giving her a meaningful look, but it was still nearly a minute before the woman clicked,

"You mean Agent Kate Todd?" she clarified, and he smiled,

"Mossad Officer Kate...Todd" he corrected, stumbling over the abbreviation of the woman's name and finally realising why nobody he knew in Israel called her that. It was too difficult to pronounce it without the tongue getting in the way, for native Hebrew and Arabic speakers anyway.

"You'd send her back?" Director Sheppard raised an eyebrow in scepticism,

"Just like that? When I spoke to her in Tel Aviv three years back she showed no sign of leaving"

"Three years is a long time" he pointed out and tried to leave it at that but the woman continued,

"Yes and from what my sources tell me, she is happier than ever. Rumour even has it that Eli was overheard asking human resources about maternity leave"

Schmuel bit down on his tongue and kept smiling, "Perhaps...however, one cannot help but notice that American-Israeli ties were severely damaged when Officer Todd departed your shores, we feel that if she were to return...for a short while at least...that it would help matters"

He held his breath while the woman internally processed this and shook her head, "No...I saw what her leaving did to the team, I don't even want to think about what her returning to the country, let alone the same state will put them through"

"Perhaps it will help them resolve their issues?" he suggested, angered when she shook her head again,

"Not on a professional basis it won't. If Kate Todd wants to return to Washington and talk to my team she can do it on her own time, otherwise it's just going to end up as a big international incident"

She was starting to gather her things now, looking ready to leave and Schmuel abandoned subtlety and good breeding to catch her attention, desperate for her to be the one who bought Officer Todd back to her homeland.

"I would be glad to recompense you for any emotional damage done to your team...would ...information on a French arms dealer do it?"

Jennifer Sheppard fell back down into her chair with an inelegant thump, now hanging onto his every breath,

"La Grenouille" she gasped, paling significantly and Schmuel smiled,

"But of course"

* * *

Back in the Israel, Caitlin Todd awoke to find herself wrapped up in an embrace with gentle kisses being pressed to her neck. Still half asleep she rolled over onto her back and smiled as Ari propped himself above her and kissed her lips hungrily, lowering himself onto her body and running his hands through her hair.

Smiling, she returned the caresses before she opened her eyes, looked at the crimson bed sheets and remembered that she was in her bedroom at the David's, that she had stormed out of Ari's apartment last night furious with him.

She pushed him away now and climbed out of the bed, stumbling across the room to open her bedroom door, Ari quickly following her,

"Caitlin" he called softly as she padded along the gallery and then down the stairs,

"Caitlin basherte I love you"

This wasn't the first time Ari had told her he loved her, it wasn't even the one hundredth time, but every time he said it, not even with fireworks and great displays but in his casual matter-of-fact way, her heart warmed. Her Hebrew had still been shaky when he had first begun calling her _basherte_, but when she'd realised it meant soul mate; it had been very easy to say that she loved him back.

Not today though,

"I hate you" she replied simply, treading into the kitchen and pulling open the fridge,

"No you don't" he contradicted, leaning against the marble island while she set about making her breakfast, "You adore me as much as I do you"

"Want to bet?" she snapped, ripping the lid off the butter so violently that the plastic broke in two; she cursed and threw it across the space where the bin stood, being flat plastic both pieces floated clumsily in the air before landing two feet short of the target.

Even more enraged and desperate to lash out at something, Kate stomped her bare foot against the cold tile and glare at her boyfriend,

"Why don't you just go away!" she shouted, not caring if they woke the rest of the household and doubtful they would anyway. It was dawn, which meant that Eli and Tony would either have already left for work or be taking a morning stroll through the nearby park. Adina had attended a charity function last night and had stumbled in at three; she would be sleeping it off and considering it was a Saturday morning, it was highly unlikely that Ziva would be waking up in her own bed.

"Because I want to stay" he answered, pushing off the marble and stepping into her space towering over her, when he speaks next, he's whispering and Kate is staring resolutely at his chest because she can't trust herself to look into his eyes, "I want to stay so I can carry you back upstairs and make love to you my beautiful neshama, I want to hold you in my arms all day and kiss you until you weep"

His last word was barely audible, he'd lowered his head while he was talking and nibbled gently on her ear, his hands were on her waist, slowly inching her towards him. Her breath quickened and she instinctively tilted her face to bury it in his neck...

"Boker Tov!"

Ziva's shrill voice rang from the back door, she stumbled into the kitchen, her high heel shoes in her hand and her blue dress swinging around her knees, she smelled of alcohol and sex,

"Where were you two last night?" she accused, not seeing the intimate scene before her,

"We missed you"

Ari threw his head back and groaned, "Histalek Ziva" he ordered but she was too busy trying to drunkenly climb onto the island and reach for the special glasses that were used for dinner parties.

"You should have seen Radio!" she continued, "Honestly Amal got into a drinking competition with the band and...whoa!"

Ziva flung her arms out and scrambled for purchase as Ari grabbed her around the waist and began to haul her out of the room, Kate following on his heels,

"Careful" she admonished as he dragged his sister into her bedroom and pushed her still struggling form onto her bed.

"There" he stood panting slightly from the effort, "Now go to sleep Ziva"

Ziva sat up and shook her head, "Lo...if I go to sleep now I'll have a hangover when I wake up"

A predicament which was likely being faced by half the employee population of Mossad.

One of the first things Kate had learned in Israel was that Tel Aviv was considered the Middle Eastern equivalent of New York and that Mossad operatives seemed to consider it a personal duty to keep the liquor and nightclub industry afloat by going out every single weekend, bar terrorist attacks or work duties. They worked hard but they partied harder, to the point where Radio E.P.G.B was considered one of the safest clubs in the city- because really who'd want to start a fight in a night club where half the patrons were trained killers?

Kate and Ari were usually top of the guest list, just behind Ziva, except that last night instead of going out, partying and stumbling home in a lust and alcohol fuelled passion- they'd stayed in and fought.

Haswari ignored this logic and pulled back the bed covers, tucking Ziva under them and kissing her forehead in a loving gesture that seemed left over from their childhood.

Leaving Ziva to drift off to sleep, they quickly exited the room and didn't stop moving until they were in the entrance hall and Ari turned back to her, wrapping an arm around her back with the clear intention of continuing where they had left off. Except that Kate pushed him away,

"No way in hell" she snapped, "I remembered that I'm angry with you"

He sighed, "Caitlin I have apologised a million times, I am sorry that I took the mission but..."

"Oh you're sorry that you took the mission but not that you lied your face off to me?" her voice had risen so neither were surprised when they heard Ziva gasp from her bedroom door,

"You did not tell her about Cairo?" she asked, weaving across the room to poke her brother in the shoulder, "Bad Ari"

He only glared at his younger sister, "If you aren't going to sleep at least get some fluids into you"

"Good idea" she agreed, returning to the kitchen, leaving Kate to face her boyfriend,

"Your _sister_ knew about Cairo and didn't tell me? Am I the only person in Israel who didn't know?"

He rolled his eyes, "Don't be foolish Caitlin, she's my control officer, she helped supply the mission, aside from that only the Kidon hierarchy would have been informed"

She gasped, "That's half our guest list when we have dinner parties, dammit Haswari- are you saying that you trusted all those people before you trusted me?"

"This isn't about _trust _Caitlin" he snapped, "This is about me obeying orders from Mossad, orders not to tell anybody about this mission that wasn't absolutely necessary to it, I am sorry that I did not tell you but that is no reason to ignore the fact that I love you"

Both had reached the point where they were angry with the other and determined to lash out, regardless of the accuracy of their accusations or whether or not they'd considered these faults problematic before,

"Love me!" she shrieked, "You can stand there and say you love me when you go to Gaza on a monthly basis and refuse to let me come with you"

"My village in Gaza is filled with conservative Muslim's Caitlin" he interrupted, "My mother was there twenty years and wasn't allowed to enter certain houses because of me, I have to struggle every day I'm there to find acceptance just so I can treat them, if they found out about my life in Israel- their men would die of simple wounds, their women would die in childbirth and their children would die of curable diseases!"

This had long since been explained to her, and though it hurt her to think that he was afraid to introduce her to the people who had known him since childhood, she understood when he rattled off the statistics of those who had died because Hasmia had been the only doctor for miles around, but an unwed mother to an Israeli- Palestinian boy and thus ignored by half the village, who deemed it preferable to watch their loved ones die then risk pollution by allowing such a shameful creature near them.

But Kate still had plenty of weapons in her arsenal, and didn't let Ari's interruption slow her down in the least,

"And how about when you go off on missions which I don't know about until after! You say you love me but you wouldn't have told me a thing if you hadn't come back with that bullet graze on your arm and a sprained ankle. Which makes me wonder how many other times there's been, and whether you plan to tell me the next time or the next..."

She stopped then, taking a jagged breath to try and calm herself and stop the tears from coming,

"You say you love me" she whispered, "but the only person you seem capable of loving is Ziva and even she is unable to reach you when she reminds you of Adina"

She sniffed loudly and turned her head away, willing her eyes not to betray her when Ari took a step forward and caressed the cheek that faced him with two ever-so-gentle fingers,

"Yes basherte" he murmured, "I am not perfect, nor anywhere close for that matter, I am damaged I'll admit and possibly in the wrong...but as much as I am able to love another person, I love you"

The phone rang then, a loud shrilling tone that pierced through the relative quiet of the house, she glared at him, "Prove it then" she challenged before spinning to where the antique black device sat in its cradle,

"Shalom this is the David household" she greeted in Hebrew, not faltering the slightest in her adopted language,

"Ah Officer Todd," a familiar voice sang, grating on her already high-strung nerves,

"Just the woman I was hoping to speak to"

Kate grimaced, safe in the knowledge that he couldn't see her, "What can I do for you Director Adir?"

Ever since that fateful day three years ago, she and Adir had seemed to have a mutual understanding to stay out of each other's way. He disliked her for her allegiance to the David family, her relationship with Haswari, her success at her job in Mossad and for her confidence or 'American arrogance' as he would call it, which had her refusing to ever back down when she knew she was right. She resented him for having wanted to make her a pawn in the power play between America and Israel and because he was so obviously racist- she'd constantly heard him refer to the Palestinian soldiers in the IDF as opportunistic dogs, the Christians as invading trash and God only knew what he called Ari when nobody loyal to Eli was in earshot. She suspected that 'bastard' would be the least of his insults.

"I was hoping you would do me the honour of meeting me in my office in ten minutes" he continued, "If that in no way inconveniences you of course"

She had to resist the urge to snort, she knew an order when she heard one and he wanted her at his office in ten minutes despite the knowledge that the average drive between the David home and Mossad compound was a good fifteen minutes.

"I'll be there" she stated simply, her voice becoming sweet and innocent, "Of course; I have to check in with Deputy Director David first, he wanted to speak to all the profilers in the Kidon unit this morning"

That was a bald lie but Kate doubted Adir would call her on it, they both knew it was a reminder of who she really worked for. She was under the Kidon umbrella and it would take both Eli and the Board of Director's consent before she could be removed.

Besides a quick text message to Eli explaining her lie and he would easily turn it into a truth.

"Whenever you are able to meet me..." the words sounded like poison tumbling from the Director's mouth, "I will be waiting"

"Todah" she replied, then with a quick Shalom, hung up the phone before he could come up with the last word.

Taking a deep breath, she exhaled and then hurried upstairs, ignoring Ari as he followed her. Reaching her bedroom, she grabbed her mobile from where it had been charging and began texting Eli with one hand as she opened her wardrobe with the other, looking for a suitable outfit that made her look both powerful and part of the Mossad-Israeli landscape. She settled on a brown silk blouse and black pants with low heeled boots- her days of skirts and high heeled work shoes were over, along with loose hair, she brushed it into a plait now as she struggled to change quickly while Ari was watching her, his eyes even now darkening with lust as she stripped to her underwear,

"Why would Director Adir want to talk to you on a Saturday morning?" he though aloud as she slipped stockinged feet into the fashionable black boots,

"Don't know, still angry at you" she answered absently as she checked her phone to see Eli had sent a return message, telling her he was in his office now and 'reminding' the profilers working that weekend that he wanted to speak to all of them.

"Do you want me to come with you?" he offered, ignoring her last remark as she grabbed her handbag and raced to the front door,

"Still angry with you" she reminded him as she grabbed the first keys she could find off the hall stand and darted to the garage.

She had to come back when she realised they were to Ari's motorcycle and found that he was already arranging for the live-in chauffeur to take her in the jeep.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N- Wow this story is nowhere near finished, anyhoo I own nothing and apologize profusely for what I'm about to do to you all.

* * *

"Who's a good girl...yes you are...yes you are"

Kate smirked when she arrived in Eli's office, knowing immediately which female he was referring to. Tony looked up from her dog bed that had permanent residence beside Eli David's desk and opened her mouth to receive the dog treat.

"Morning lovebirds" Kate teased, taking a seat at the desk and helping herself to a cup of tea,

"Good morning Caitlin" he responded, his eyes filled with mischief

"And how are you finding your job?"

She laughed and added some sugar to the green tea, her nerves calmed by the games played by her and Eli,

"Oh just great, thank-you, the work is challenging but rewarding, there's plenty of opportunities for me to increase my skills and the dental plan is terrific"

He matched her smirk, "Then I'm glad that we scheduled an appointment at eight o'clock on a Saturday morning to discuss this- is there any way in which I can increase your work satisfaction?"

She swallowed the tea she had been drinking, "Yeah, become the next Director of Mossad and be quick about it"

His body twitched in agreement, "Adir seems determined to reign forever" he sniffed in disdain at the older man's refusal to give up work, even though he was well past the retirement age in Israel and his health was steadily declining.

They weren't the only one's showing impatience either, the public wasn't all that impressed that the leader of their most renowned intelligence agency looked like a grandfather, was married to the woman Kate had first mistaken for his daughter and whom he was rumoured to have met in a strip club.

Eli and Adina by contrast appeared all the more stately, moral and appropriate. They were known for their patronage of the arts and numerous charities, every family member served Israel, the only scandal to have ever touched their name was Ari's birth and even that could be forgiven seeing as Eli was a _man_. Both of them had served in the army and Eli had gone on to earn the title of deputy-director while Adina had raised their children, they had lost a daughter to a suicide bomber and where most would have been destroyed by this, overcame their grief to continue aiding their country. Publicly they were the perfect candidates for Mr and Mrs Mossad Director, and public opinion counted for something in that world.

Privately those that were loyal to Eli David were getting fed up with the obvious animosity shown by Adir and there was a sniff of mutiny and rebelliousness in the air.

* * *

A rebelliousness that Kate was feeling as she arrived at Director Adir's office a good thirty minutes after the appointed time. Eli had offered to accompany her but she'd declined, determined to handle the old man herself.

When she was ushered into the office, she saw that it wasn't going to be a private meeting- Schmuel Rubenstein was sitting at the desk beside Adir, reminding her of her two great-aunt's, spinsters both of them with perpetual looks of disapproval on their wrinkled faces.

She had to resist the urge to laugh as she saluted and couldn't repress her smile when they left her standing,

"You wanted to see me Director?" she prompted, causing the old man to nod,

"Yes Officer Todd" his watery eyes looked up from the stack of papers on his desk,

"I wanted to tell you in person that you will be receiving a promotion..."

_Promotion?_

Kate blinked in shock and knew her face mirrored her emotions. She had known that the job for head of the profiling unit was up for grabs but she'd never once assumed that she would qualify. There were those who had been in the unit for years and who were much more experienced. She forced herself to focus as Director Adir continued speaking,

"You are being appointed the Mossad liaison in America" he finished with a flourish of his pen and a thin lipped grin, "Congratulations"

"What?" Kate looked at the two men, wondering if this was some sort of joke to get revenge for her having kept them waiting, but she sees nothing but thinly veiled triumph in their eyes,

'_This is bullshit,'_ what she wants to say but managed to stop herself in time,

"No I'm afraid I can't accept" she murmurs, trying to make it sound like an apology and this time it is the two men, who are surprised,

"This is not optional Officer Todd, it has already been decided" Schmuel tells her but her brain is finally catching up with her,

"With all due respect sir, I am underqualified for the position and believe it would be of greater benefit for Mossad if somebody with more distinct ties to Israel and no conflicting ties in America were to take the job" she paused and chewed her lips before smiling in what she hoped was a carefree manner, "I'm sure when you bring it up with the Board of Directors that they will agree with you"

"You presence has already been formally requested" Schmuel announced, banging his hand down on the desk to emphasise his point, she flinched at the obvious display of manly force and felt her hackles rise,

"Formally requested or not, it's still the Board of Director's decision" she argued, "And I can still refuse if I so choose"

Rubenstein only snarled, "You don't have a choice" he threatened "not if you ever want to see Haswari again"

Her blood ran cold. She unwittingly took a step back and swallowed nervously as the horrific moment was shattered as Adir attempted to laugh off his nephew's words,

"Is that a threat?" she asked quietly, but Adir only laughed again, ignoring the glowering man next to him,

"Of course not Officer Todd, Officer Rubenstein is simply too emotionally invested in this project and determined for it to succeed" his laughter died when he saw that she was inching closer to his office door and began speaking quickly, "We do believe that you will be the best suited to this position because you have both the cultural understanding and knowledge to adjust to life in Washington with ea..."

"I will have to discuss this with Deputy Director David" she stammered before darting through the doorway and throwing herself down the hall, moving so quickly that she startled the few officers that were on duty that weekend.

* * *

Eli was meeting with several politicians when she burst back into his office, his look of annoyance however fell right off his face when he saw her panicked expression,

"Caitlin" he addressed her in English, a semi-private language for them both, "What is wrong?"

She swallowed and tried to breathe past the tightness in her chest, "Adir and Rubenstein threatened Ari, he told me that if I didn't do as he said, I would never see him again"

Like a hurricane that had invaded a sunny, calm day, Eli David resembled nothing save dark fury in that moment. His hands clenched and unclenched and the men who had been sitting on the couches, in relative ease, drinking tea and eating sandwiches, began to flutter nervously and a sudden violent gesture by Eli had them all grabbing their files and scrambling from the room.

Despite the fact that Kate was alone with a man who had just overturned his priceless coffee table and shattered an expensive tea set- she felt secure. Eli stood, stepped over the mess and grabbed her by the shoulders,

"Tell me what they said exactly" he ordered, his voice low and murderous.

Catching her breath, she obeyed him and repeated the threat word for word, not noticing when he dug his fingers into her shoulder blades. When she was done, he released her and cursed before returning to his desk,

"Where are we going?" she asked as he slammed his items into his briefcase with such force she was sure something would break, he didn't answer her but shouted to his secretary in a tone that had her running in, clearly forgetting to pretend that she hadn't been eavesdropping,

"Officer Todd and I are leaving" he announced, "We shan't be returning for a week at least, any and all work is to be brought to my house and any important calls forwarded there. That being said, I am increasing the security around my property and anyone wishing to enter will be forced to go through several checkpoints...am I clear?"

"Yes sir" she saluted and hurried out again, nearly tripping over Tony who had picked up on the tension in the room and wandered to the door. Kate picked her up and scratched her ears as Eli snapped his briefcase shut and placed a hand on her back, guiding her rather forcibly into the halls of the Mossad compound,

"Where are we going?" she asked as they kept their gaze straight ahead, their pace so quick and determined that anyone who was in their path got out of the way.

"Home" he told her, the sound of his grinding teeth audible, "You, Ari and Ziva aren't setting foot off my property until I know you are all safe. I'd consider sending the three of you two Gaza but Adir could order Ari's village to be hit"

They were already reaching the car before Kate swallowed her doubt and spoke up,

"Do you think that maybe it was just an empty threat?" she suggested as he handed her into the passenger seat, "Maybe it was just some sick twisted plan to get us to act this way and make us look bad?"

Eli revs the engine so hard that she has flashbacks to Ari on his motorbike that day in Washington, the tires screech as he yanks the car from its parking spot and leave smoke trails as he speeds towards the exit,

"Caitlin...the Israeli desert is littered with the corpses of those who have threatened my children; everyone knows this, so even if Adir is playing a game, he knows the consequences...besides,"

Away from the public eye he gives her a confident smile that makes her realise that they had just finished acting a play, the script and choreography written by Eli himself,

"Once word gets out that Rubenstein uttered that sentence, it's going to be open season on all of us...and our side has more ammunition"

Kate snickered and scratched Tony's tummy, "Eli, have you ever watched that American teen drama Ziva and I like?"

He sniffed and raced a red light, "Ah, the one with the bee queen that you constantly remark must be based heavily on me?"

"Queen bee" she corrected automatically, not even having to think the words over before translating them to Hebrew, "Except you're a much better dresser"

He grinned, "Toda"

* * *

The new security set up was already under way by the time Eli and Kate reached the homestead, Adina and Ziva were standing on the front lawn, watching impassively while the bodyguards and those who worked in the David home were touching base and figuring everything out,

"Where is Ari?" Kate asked, approaching the two women and setting Tony down to do her customary lap around the bushes,

"Gaza" Adina uttered, her face hardening as the small security party scattered, attending their various posts, "I have already sent him warning, he will be here within two hours"

Kate noted the definitive tone of Adina's sentence; the woman had not requested her husband's child to come to her home, she had ordered him. He might be living proof that Eli had touched another woman, but he was part of her family unit and as such she would protect him and thus protect her power interests.

She had learnt long ago not to blame Adina or resent her for the ambitious manner in which she viewed everything about her.

She had learnt that Adina had spent her childhood in luxury until her parent's death had left her to be raised by her resentful paternal grandmother who'd considered materialism to be the height of sin. Adina had been born into Judaism, something which her grandmother had hated, having been a staunch believer of the Nazi party. Her grandmother had refused to allow this to continue and withdrawn her from her private school to send her to a state school, where children made fun of her because she didn't know who Jesus was. As Adina had grown she had seen her childhood friends abandon her for parties she wasn't invited to and toys that she could no longer afford. Every year her life had become more and more intolerable until by sheer chance she had come across her grandmother wearing her mother's jewellery. Diamonds and rubies that had been smuggled from Europe during the war and sent back by a relative afterwards, a small fortune, enough with which to buy her escape. On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, the day after she had graduated from high school and been the only student there without a family or friend to congratulate her, she had broken into her grandmother's bedroom, stolen back her mother's possessions and taken them to the pawn broker she'd had the agreement with. She'd then gone straight from the shop to the airport and booked herself on the first plane to Israel.

She had never found out when her grandmother had realised she wasn't coming back, but a year after being married to Eli she had received a statement for the jewellery, listing it's potential worth and demanding recompense.

She had paid without bothering to send a note.

* * *

As they entered the house, Kate heard Ziva sigh with relief and press her fingers to her temples,

"Do you know what is worse than your life being in danger?" she asked her quietly and Kate sniggered at the question,

"Being in danger with a hangover the size of the Middle East?" she guessed, receiving a moan in response as the smaller woman rested her head on her shoulder,

"Why do I like tequila shooters Caitlin?"

"Because you take after your father Ziva" Adina answered from the dining room,

"Now come in here both of you- no point being in danger on an empty stomach"

All throughout brunch the home phone rang off the hook, work colleagues of Eli, Ari, Kate and Ziva's and social friends and acquaintances of the entire family calling to figure out what was happening and offer their support. Kate herself was certain she spoke to every friend she'd made at the language centre and was down to the last of her prayer group before Adina ordered that all further calls were to be answered by the butler in the hopes of giving the family some peace and quiet.

"Does not matter anyway" Ziva mumbles as Kate walks her to her bedroom, watching as she kicks off her shoes and strips down to her underwear before crawling back into the bed,

"The way things are going the news is already around Israel and..." with a large yawn Ziva fell back against the pillows, not even bothering to finish her sentence.

Kate smirked and closed the door, ignoring the shrill ringing of every phone in the house and heading into the library to enjoy her Saturday.

In the small, cosy room she could see a copy of Said on the coffee table and figured Ari must have done some reading before heading to Gaza, still annoyed with her boyfriend, she flung herself down onto the couch and knocked the book with her foot, sending it flying to the ground and causing it to snap shut. As she opened a copy of Bronte, she hoped that when he got home, he wouldn't be able to remember what page he had been on- he got irritated when he lost his place and no doubt would guess that she was responsible, process of elimination really, the rest of the family shared the same literary obsession and considered it a heinous crime to cause someone to lose their page. Her crime committed, she settled down and was making good headway before one of the maids burst into the room, her hands fluttering anxiously,

"Miss Todd" she gasped, hurrying over to the couch, "After that blast earlier I turned on the radio..."

Kate nodded, wondering at the woman's anxiety, it was a clear day in Tel Aviv and she had heard the familiar rumbling of a far off missile or bomb exploding- honestly it had got to the point where you could easily tune them out. When she had first arrived she had been horrified by the distant sound and wanted to know if there was anything she could do to help, eventually Ari had explained to her that it was a part of life in Israel and that all she could do was her job, help them track down the enemies and pray when she heard the life taking blasts.

She hadn't even realised she'd said a 'Hail Mary' until the maid reminded her of the sound.

"Was the attack in your area?" she asked kindly, propping herself up on her elbows from her lying position on the couch, "Is so I'm sure Adina will let you go home for the day..."

"No Miss..." the woman shook her head and wiped the tears in her eyes, "The radio said that the missiles landed in the Gaza strip"

The book toppled from Kate's hands and somehow ended on the floor, somewhere in the house Ziva had started screaming hysterically, but for some reason she could barely hear her, Kate's ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton wool. Her mouth felt the same, it was so awfully dry that she had to swallow a few times before she could speak,

"Khan Yunis?" she whispered, only keeping her eyes on the maid long enough for the confirmation before her head fell back against the pillows and she blacked out.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N- Thank-you for all the lovely reviews it lets me know where to take the story, once again I own nothing but as you might notice I'm bringing NCIS back in.

* * *

"Are you sure? Right...and the rest of the family? Okay...and that includes? You mean you don't know...Of course, thank-you Becca"

Tony felt a sense of foreboding as he entered Director Sheppard's office. The team had over-ordered on dinner again and he'd come to offer her some steamed pork. The paper carton was held tightly in his hand as he ventured past the doorway and smiled at the woman holding her head in her still bandaged mummy hands,

"Trouble madam director?" he queried as she wearily raised her head and looked at him with tired, blood-shot eyes.

"I need to make an announcement to the team DiNozzo" she told him with a hoarse voice,

"Get them in here"

His happy-go-lucky smile faltered as he backed out the doorway, through Cynthia's office and onto the MTAC gallery overlooking the bullpen.

McGee was sitting with Paula Cassidy at her/ Kate's old desk; both were laughing as they ate dinner together. Gibbs was downstairs eating dinner with Abby, Ducky and Palmer as per usual.

Once upon a time they might have all eaten together but that was back when the woman looking up at him was a shoulder length brunette, not a short cropped blonde,

"Problem Tony?" she called up, breaking the nightly silence of the dimly lit office,

"Camp fire in Director's office" he called back down, "Muster the troops"

"Yes sir captain" Gibbs announced, appearing suddenly on the stairs, habitual coffee cup in hand, Tony winced as he was given a passing head slap,

"No more westerns for you DiNozzo" he ordered quietly, disappearing through the doorway and leaving Tony standing there, rubbing the back of his head,

"Sure thing boss" he muttered obediently as Paula sneaked up from behind and kissed him on the back of the head,

"Can I call you captain?" she suggested cheekily as McGee made a point of walking past with his eyes closed,

"Not in the office" he warned, patting her on the butt as the elevator dinged and Abby walked out, holding hands with Ducky and Palmer,

"I love field trips" Abby announced as they all assembled in the office, Gibbs stationed at the wall behind Jenny's desk and the rest of the team taking positions at the table or on the couches.

"They do add excitement to the day" Ducky agreed pleasantly before looking up at the pale red head, as she stood shakily from her desk. It was at that point he realised that Abigail, Mr Palmer and himself were the only cheerful ones there; with a gentle hand he quieted the bouncing Goth beside him,

Jenny waited another few seconds before speaking "I'm afraid I have some bad news" she began, swallowing nervously and reaching out her still bandaged hand behind her so Jethro could subtly stroke her wrist,

"About three hours ago" she paused, looking at Agent McGee for a moment, marvelling in his still apparent youthful innocence before continuing, "The Israeli army deployed missiles aimed for the city of Khan Yunis in Gaza, three of these missiles hit the area directly and another two hit the surrounding areas, including a refugee camp and a graveyard"

"How terrible" Ducky dutifully commented mournfully, taking off his glasses to polish and remembering all the war torn places he had been, "Are there many fatalities?"

Jenny exhaled and shifted from one foot to the other, "So far nobody is sure but they're estimating a possible ten thousand dead...it was a heavily populated city" she added by way of explanation when she heard Abby gasp in shock,

"I don't understand" McGee pointed out, still-mistakenly- believing himself inexperienced enough that he wasn't embarrassed to ask the questions other people wanted the answers to,

"Why are you telling _us_ this?"

Jenny lowered her eyes to the carpeted floor before looking up again, "Ari Haswari is believed to be among the dead"

You could almost hear the noise made by the sound of the team blinking in rapid unison, not because they were in any way upset by the knowledge, they were just surprised that his health was deemed of any relevance to them.

"And this is bad news because?" Tony prompted, making a circular motion with his hand, and that was when Jenny dropped the bombshell that was her reason for having called them in,

"As yet, we are unsure if Ag- Kate Todd was with him"

Gibbs dropped the wrist he had been so gently stroking and Jenny brought her hands together, finding comfort in the feel of the bandages rubbing together.

"Kate?" Abby whispered, her mouth hanging open in shock, "_she_ was in the Gaza strip?"

Jenny shrugged her shoulders, "All we know is that she left the Mossad offices early this morning after a row with the Director in which it's rumoured Officer Haswari's life was threatened, nobody is quite sure of her movements after that but it turns out two hours beforehand, a weekend pass to allow her within Gaza strip was issued, she had enough time to reach the scene of the bombings before they happened...I am sorry" she added as Tony, McGee and Palmer's faces showed their shock and Abby began weeping into her lace handkerchief,

"When will the list of the dead be released?" Ducky asked, staying professional as the team struggled to maintain their composure, Jenny could only sigh,

"They reckon by the end of the fortnight...of course with Haswari and Kate being Mossad operatives, their deaths will probably be confirmed if or when they can identify their bodies"

"Thank-you" he whispered, and, seeing that Jethro made no move to leave, stood and began ushering the rest of the team from the room, Abby was the last to leave Jenny and Gibbs alone, stopping to receive a hug and kiss on the cheek from both of them before scuttling after Ducky and McGee.

Once the door was closed, Jenny turned to Jethro, who had turned his back to her and was staring out her large windows, into the night sky, slowly taking his numerous thoughts and compiling them until he could turn them into speech understood by his fiancée,

"I can't pretend that I won't be happy to read the bastard's obituary" he murmured, not taking his eyes from the streets of Washington "But she didn't deserve this, she didn't deserve to die like that"

"Nobody deserves to die like that Jethro" she snapped, disgusted by his lack of empathy for the dead, "Looking up at the sky and seeing nothing but weaponry, knowing everyone you've ever known and loved is about to be blown to pieces...knowing that there's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide...helpless and terrified...nobody deserves that!"

He nodded and his shoulders fell, heartbeats later, Jenny saw a tear trickle down his cheek, she softened and stepped forward,

"You loved her?" she questioned, her heart cracking slightly when he nodded, confirming her long held suspicions,

"Not like I do you Jen" he reassured her, but after a few more moments he sighed, "Yeah...yeah I did"

Downstairs they heard something large, filled with glass and likely expensive shatter and he sighed again, knowing one of his team- likely Abby or DiNozzo- were coping with their grief the only way they knew how, by finding physical outlets,

"I have to go look after the children" he announced unnecessarily, straightening his shoulders and marching from the room.

Leaving Jenny wondering why she was crying for a woman she had only met once and not even liked.

* * *

When Kate awoke, her first thought was disorientated, she knew she was in the library but her head was swimming and everything was so _loud. _

Then a disconnected thought entered her mind and she remembered...

"Oh..." she gasped and shook, "Oh...oh _dammit_"

She burst into tears and lay back down on the couch, curled onto her side while sobs wracked her body,

"Hush, hush" she felt the couch sink as Adina sat by her stomach and wrapped her in her arms, she felt kisses being placed in her hair and her tears being wiped away with a silk scarf, but they only fell heavier,

"Ari" she sobbed, calling his name, the world in front of her blurring as she tried summoning him back to her, "Ari, Ari, please, _please_"

Adina lowered her head onto Kate's but she weakly pushed her away, getting to her feet and tottering from the room, looking for true companions in her grief,

"Ziva?" she choked, her voice strangled and barely audible, "Eli?"

"Sedated" Adina answered, appearing behind her and propping her up when she looked likely to sink back to the floor, "She became hysterical and we had to sedate her- she is sleeping now, Eli..." she hesitated and bit her lip, "I would stay away from him Caitlin...he became violent when he heard the news and started throwing things, he locked himself in his office and we are afraid to go near him"

It was then Kate realised that the left side of Adina's face was bruised, a cut on her cheek and her hair a mess, momentarily stunned from her grief by horror, she touched the still bleeding cut and the older woman winced, "He was blinded by his grief and did not realise what he was doing" she shrugged, "Over twenty years of marriage and this is the first time he has hit me, that is a good statistic"

Kate nodded and looked at the wall at the opposite end of the hall ordering herself to make it across the cavernous space without falling, "I will go talk to him" she determined, her words sluggish, she made it a few steps before she sank to the floor and knelt there, she crawled as far as the inlaid fountain and rested her head against the rim, closing her eyes.

Adina left her there for a while; the servants and security guards that had followed the matron into the library were ushered out and ordered to return to their duties. Kate heard her as she crossed the hall numerous times, going from room to room, quietly issuing instructions, she even smirked when the woman picked up the phone and warned the person on the other end that if they rang again they would be reporting their own death. Then she remembered that the man she loved was dead and broke into fresh tears.

She knew she was being weak, she couldn't help but remember the fifties guide to being a good wife, in the event of being widowed, the wife was instructed to continue on with her head held high so as to do her husband proud.

Clearly the author hadn't had a damn clue about real love.

'_When did lab rats start carrying sig sauers?' _

From the moment Ari had pointed a gun at her, she had been stunned and slightly awed by him, these feelings had quickly been replaced by resentment but an overwhelming feeling of being connected to the man. The second time he had kidnapped her, she had been more frightened to discover he was Mossad than that he had planned an attack on the President of the United States.

She wasn't allowed to care about a terrorist- an ally operative was another matter.

From there their relationship had catapulted, after a few nights of cooking for each other she'd known more about him than any other boyfriend before. She'd felt close to him even when he'd been worlds away.

And now he was _literally_ worlds away and she kept expecting him to walk in that door any minute and laugh at her for her foolishness, strangely enough what she wanted most was to see the smirk he'd worn when she'd tried to stab him with the scalpel. He used that challenging smirk when he wanted to melt her resolve. She wanted to cup his face in her hand and kiss him until he picked her up in his arms and promised it was all just a horrible dream.

He never would and one day she probably wouldn't even be able to remember what he looked like.

* * *

Adina had been in the kitchen, organising the upcoming shiva when the sound of Kate vomiting on the hallway floor had her running back. One look at the young woman on all fours, reduced to dry retching and she sighed, waving her hand to the butler who grabbed a passing maid. Pausing at the foot of the stairs, Adina watched as the woman who would have been her daughter-in-law was half carried, half dragged to her bedroom, hopefully the butler would have the sense to give her a sedative powerful enough to knock her out for the next twelve hours. Best case scenario the woman would sleep through the night and wake up the next morning single and bereft of any sense of belonging in Israel. She could admire Caitlin Todd; much like herself the young American had come to Israel with little more than the clothes on her back and made a stake at creating a life for herself. Unlike her though, Caitlin Todd had damn near gambled everything and now it appeared she had lost.

Adina sighed, she wanted to promise Caitlin that the pain would pass, that she was strong enough to forge ahead, but in all honesty, the wife of nearly thirty years had no idea what the young woman was going through. Her husband had only ever truly loved one woman and even that hadn't saved him from coming under suspicion from his own son when she had died in a bombing.

The only thing she could really do was quietly suggest to Eli that she be allowed to stay in the house for as long as she wished. After all, with two children in the grave, they weren't exactly short of space.

Adina took a moment to brush a tear from her eye, when all was said and done, she had been accustomed to Ari and would likely miss him in her life.

* * *

The world was gone.

Quite simply it had been blown from existence.

Despite this inarguable fact, night had still fallen in the desert. The bleeding and broken world had still capitulated to the laws of time and darkness had shielded the tremendous horrors from view.

The only illumination coming from Khan Yunis were the spectacularly few emergency lights, rigged up to cars and the multiple fires still burning throughout the city and refugee camp. From the distant hill it was eerily beautiful. Two men were the audience for this tragedy, the media vultures had been too scared to venture in and those that were close enough were too busy trying to fight the unconquerable destruction, these two had been granted reprieve on the sole basis of one being too old and the other having been at the heart of the wounded city until sheer exhaustion had seen him dragged away.

"By Allah you can see the stars tonight" the younger one commented, looking up at the far away balls of plasma held together by the fragile thing that was gravity.

"I've never seen them shine so bright in Khan Yunis before"

The elder man grunted, "That was all the lights from the buildings" he explained, "They ruined everything"

Even as he speaks he knows this fact to have long since been discovered and understood by the younger man, whose intelligence, even from an early age, led him to places that those around him couldn't even dream of, but such is his respect for the elder than the young man wouldn't even begin to consider acknowledging this.

"The bodies that were unearthed were reburied" he reports to the old man, "Of course it's likely that there's been some structural damage to all the graves, whether blown up or not, but we figured the best thing to do was to get the bodies back below ground"

The man humphed in agreement, despite having been versed in Islamic law since a boy and legendary for knowing the better part of the Quran by heart, he couldn't fault the likely quick and inelegant ways the bodies would have been placed back in the earth, there were bodies in that graveyard that had been there since before _his_ birth and likely little more than dust now, they couldn't be ritually re-cleaned, besides Islamic custom hadn't yet caught up with the process of grave desecration that had occurred that day.

Striking his cane on the ground, he turned to the young man, admiring his posture, straight backed and proud even as he stood covered in the blood and gore of his friends and neighbours.

"Why'd the Israeli's do this you think?" he asked, too old to be moved by the ever familiar sight of horror before him, "Can't have been Hamas or Al-Qaeda, we haven't had them here in nearly a year, our women don't even bother wearing a hijab when they leave their homes now"

The younger man shrugged, "Because they can" he suggested bitterly, "Because they stood there, their hands on the button, drunk in the knowledge that they could bring death to thousands without ever having to see them and couldn't resist"

The elder man struck his cane against the ground again, kicking up the dust,

"All the previous attacks have had some sort of purpose behind them" he continued, seeing the boy flinch in memory of his murdered mother.

"This...I can't even pretend to understand how they plan to justify ten thousand dead to the rest of the world"

The young man's laugh was chilling in its inconsolable tone, "Likely the same way the Nazi's would have justified the lives of six million Jews, the true horror is that they don't see how in their desperation to avoid the past they are repeating it"

The elder man flinched at the rising hysteria in the young man's voice, and wondered if the Israeli's hadn't just made an exceptionally dangerous enemy,

"Go home Ari" he ordered gently, using the name that so few were allowed to, "Sleep, pray, eat...there aren't enough wounded here for you to be of any use...go home to your woman"

Ari only spat blood from his mouth, "I have no home" he swore, "Mossad blew it from the fucking ground"

Nevertheless, he dragged his tired body into the valley below, in search of a car to take him to the nearest exit point, back to Israel, back to Caitlin.

* * *

A/N- Hit the button people, I need to know what you think


	13. Chapter 13

A/N- Hello my lovlies, thank-you for all the reviews and just warning you now, the story is both going to get lighter and darker.

* * *

It was past midnight when Caitlin Todd finally lay down to sleep.

But not in the David family home.

After she'd been taken upstairs, she had showered, brushed her teeth and drunk whatever the butler had handed her, but every time she'd closed her eyes she'd imagined the horrible death that had robbed her of the man she loved.

Behind her eyelids lived a world of heinous imagery and she'd been terrified even to blink.

Then the shock had settled in, she'd found herself brimming with energy, unable to sit down even for a minute. She'd run down to the backyard and jumped into the pool, still fully dressed and done three laps before Amit Hadar, a friend of Eli's had pulled her out and slapped her. She'd laughed and started babbling at him, trying to explain the feelings within her. When he'd taken her inside, still dripping wet, he'd told Adina that they should hospitalise her.

She'd returned the slap then, twice as hard and stormed out of the house.

Of course with the Mossad security team still in action, she'd only made it as far as the front gate before she'd been 'escorted' back.

Eventually Adina had suggested that she go home to Ari's apartment.

She'd been packed into a car, given a kiss on the forehead and driven the short distance to the apartment building she'd spent the last three years making her home.

Walking through the front door, the first thing she did was peel the wet clothes from her body and head straight to the bathroom to throw up again.

The entire apartment smelt of him.

She took a longer shower this time- Israeli drought be damned- washed every inch of her body and wondered if she'd be able to keep any food down...the weird thing was she had felt so hungry thi...

"Oh no" Kate told herself as she turned off the water and looked down at her flat stomach, finally putting the clues together,

"Ohh no, no, no, no, no,"

She clambered out of the shower and rushed to the cupboard under the sink, pushing aside her numerous beauty products to find the small bag of goods that Eli had given her last month.

Pulling it open she rummaged past the pre-natal vitamins until she felt the square box under her fingers and fished the pregnancy kit out.

Sighing with relief she set it on the counter, thanking her lucky stars her would-have-been father-in-law had the subtlety of a flying brick.

'I want grandchildren' had been the explanation handed to Ari and Kate when the bag had been dropped in her lap, 'Preferably two or three'

That night, after Eli had left, Ari had gone into the bedroom and checked his condoms for sabotage, and if Kate remembered correctly; they'd had to throw an entire packet out.

Ari was a doctor and Kate refused to have a child outside of wedlock, so not only did he use protection but she was on the pill, they used contraception every time...

Except for the times they hadn't.

She remembered that night a few weeks back when they'd staggered out of a nightclub at three in the morning and couldn't find a cab, she'd started kissing him and they'd ended up having sex in an alleyway. Then there was the time after that they'd been at the beach house in Haifa and made love in the ocean...and then on the way home they'd stopped at a secluded park for a picnic and gone a bit too far...

Now that she thought about it, she should have taken this test a lot sooner- possibly when the father of her maybe-child was still alive.

Cursing, she reached out to pick up the box only to find that her hands were shaking, she fumbled and the test fell from her hand and onto the floor. Shivering now, she decided to leave it there for the moment and come back when she felt better, when she felt more capable of discovering whether or not she carried the only remnant of the man she loved inside of her.

Stepping into the bedroom, Kate looked outside and the part of her still able to comprehend the world around her was stunned to see that night had fallen, that the longest, worst day of her life had ended. Climbing onto the bed, automatically heading to her side, she registered the sweat on her body and lay atop the blankets, stretching out and closing her eyes- exhaustion caught up with her and she immediately fell asleep.

* * *

She woke to the feeling of a warm, calloused palm running across her stomach. Still half-asleep, she enjoyed the warmth and sighed, lifting her body towards the caress. The hand ran up to her left breast and squeezed, teasing her nipple until it hardened. She gasped and opened her eyes, seeing a figure cast in shadow sitting on the edge of the bed. Her exhausted, grief stricken brain slowly acknowledged that she must be dreaming and she reached out, hoping that her imaginary seducer would take Ari's form. Her hands fell short of the figure, but he realised her intent and covered one of her hands with his own, guiding it over her body as her breathing quickened. He slid it down to her thighs and up to stroke her pubic hair before releasing it to slip his fingers into her, moaning she arched her body again as her dream lover brought her to the edge of an orgasm and over before pulling her panting form down the bed and into his arms.

She kissed him and felt stubble against her cheek, she was surprised that her mind was processing senses in her dream but knew that the imagination could be powerful enough to confuse it with reality.

Besides, the sooner this ended, the sooner she woke up and remembered she was alone.

Eager now, she tugged at the shirt her dream lover was wearing, frowning with disgust when her hands touched some drying mess on the fabric, pulling it away she realised she smelt blood.

"You're bleeding" she murmured to her imaginary seducer and he sighed,

"It is not mine precious" he whispered, "In fact I don't even know whose it is"

Kate nodded and allowed this to settle within her for a few heartbeats before the shock she had been suffering once again gave way to adrenaline.

"Oh my God!" she screeched, pulling back and sliding up the bed so fast her head span, quick as she could she hit the bedside lamp and bathed the room in a bright glow.

"It's you!" she continued staring in stunned disbelief at the man before her.

Ari only looked at her with a cocktail of confusion, concern and fatigue, "Caitlin, you are on our bed in our apartment, who did you _think_ was making love to you?"

Kate didn't answer; instead she scrambled off the bed and rushed to the living room, grabbing the kitchen bench for support as she reached for the phone, her fingers felt thick and heavy, she hit several wrong buttons and had to keep starting again. She flinched as the lights turned on and dropped the phone to the floor; cursing she bent to pick her up but Ari beat her to it. Turning her shaking form around, he stared deep into her eyes,

"Caitlin" he whispered her name cautiously, like he would an ER patient, "Who are you trying to ring?"

Kate could only stare at him for a few seconds while she tried to process her thoughts, and comprehend that her dead lover was standing in front of her,

"Um, Ziva...no wait she's sedated...um Adina, she's answering the phones at the moment"

She was babbling again and trembling violently she stepped forward and pressed herself against her boyfriend's body, turning her head til she could hear his faint heartbeat through his clothing and smell him past the odour of blood and death.

With an arm wrapped about her to support her naked frame, Ari dialled the number and held the phone to his ear; she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck when she heard the call connect, and Adina's weary voice on the other end,

"Shalom?"

"Adina, it's me...something is wrong with Caitlin, she wants to speak to you"

There was a brief pause and Ari reached down to press the phone to her ear but she shook her head and he sighed, bringing it back up to his ear,

"Alright she doesn't want to speak to y-...what? Of course it's me Adina who else...clearly I am alive because I'm speaking to you- you thought I was dead?...No...by sheer miracle I am alive"

He laughs then and Kate is chilled by the bitterness that escapes him, he hangs up and puts the phone back in the cradle, releasing her and stalking over to the couch, nervously and perhaps still stunned by his sudden reappearance in her life, she continues standing there until he laughs again and looks up at her, his eyes dark and wild.

"According to Adina apparently Rubenstein did all this to harm me" he exclaimed, breaking the momentary silence, "By Allah he is an idiot Caitlin...an estimated ten thousand dead and I'm not even one of them, who else in the history of mankind has ever murdered ten thousand men, women and children and still managed to miss their target?"

He laughs again but quite suddenly doubles over and buries his face in his hands, moaning as the grief ripped through him like something physical,

"Men, women, children, my clinic, my home, my mosque, my favourite tea house, the orphanage, the school...gone, all gone!"

He wanted to sob and Kate was so sure of this reaction that she hurried across the floor to take him in her arms, and rain kisses on his face, "It's okay, it's okay"

Even as she speaks she knows the words are ridiculous, but if there is a guide out there that teaches the proper etiquette for interacting with someone who has just lost their entire world Kate sure as hell hasn't seen it in the bookstores.

Heck, she shouldn't even be here, Caitlin Todd is an American, death isn't in her blood, what she knows of suffering and loss doesn't even begin to compare to the knowledge attained by the Israeli people from birth. She is struck with a sudden longing for Washington, to be safe and warm in a city where decisions to commit mass murder aren't based on a personal dislike of one human being, where the deaths of thousands of people is an atrocity that is committed in far off places, not villages that she could reach in a few hours.

She is positioned awkwardly on Ari's lap, trying to cover his tall frame with her small body, so he has to look up to meet her eyes, but when he does the emptiness in them chills her to the bone.

He kisses her, tasting her lips and delving his tongue into her mouth, his hands running up and cupping her breasts as she slides off his lap onto the couch, spreading her legs as he climbs atop her.

When he enters her he's still wearing his clothes. His dried shirt flicking specks of blood and dirt onto Kate's stomach and his pants only lowered enough for access. It isn't the first time they haven't both been completely undressed during sex, but before it had been because of mutual urgency or because they had been in semi-public areas. Now their lovemaking seems distant, impersonal, both of them are distracted by the ten thousand corpses between them, both questioning their participation in the crime.

When he collapses upon her, spent, she kisses his temple absently and runs her fingers through his hair,

"Come with me to Washington" she whispers in his ear and he turns his head to the side and shrugs,

"Why not?"

His harsh laughter is cut off seconds later when they hear the familiar sound of Ziva's boots as she jumps up the stairs calling his name.

* * *

Three days later, Kate slung her purse over her shoulder as her chauffeured car pulled into place, taking a breath before she opened the door; she stepped out and was immediately swamped by the press, armed with photos and questions. She did her best to ignore them and set her eyes on the building before her, pushing her way through the crowd. Thankfully the Franciscan priests had noticed her arrival and opened the church doors, allowing her to quickly slip inside the iron-wrought gates and into the sanctuary of the St Peter's church. She quietly exhaled in relief and made her way to the altar where Father Mattei was deep in conversation with two of the congregation,

"Father" she whispered respectfully as she approached, breaking up the party of three,

"Caitlin my child" he murmured, pulling her close in a gentle hug, "I was so glad to hear God had protected you"

'If only He had chosen to save the rest as well' she mused sadly, but instead she offered a small smile, "Thank-you for agreeing to do this" she responded, gesturing at the gathering around her.

Two days ago Father Mattei had rung her and Ari's apartment, frantic over the rumours in the media that they had both been killed in Khan Yunis. When she had assured him they were both fine he had tentatively suggested a Mass, to mourn the passing of the civilians. A foreigner, like herself, he didn't harbour the prejudice many Israeli's felt towards the Palestinians and considered any act of violence a tragedy. She took him up on the offer in an instant and the two of them had spent the rest of the day contacting the congregation to alert them to the impromptu Mass.

Meanwhile Ari had already visited the Great Mosque of Jaffa, on the same day that Eli and several of his close work colleagues had made an appearance at the Western Wall, Ziva had organised prayers at the Great Synagogue in Allenby Street and Adina had led their extended family and friends in multiple times. As a united front they were making a statement to the world- a statement the media were quickly supporting by hailing Khan Yunis as a cruel, senseless massacre.

The Israeli Army had released a statement to the papers the morning after the attack, stating that they had been acting on information handed to them claiming several Hamas operatives had been training followers in the village. When asked to provide proof, the spokesperson had seen the way public opinion was shifting and told the press to ask Mossad for details.

Sensing the opportunity of a lifetime, Eli had released a statement announcing that he had in no way shape or form known about the supposed threat or attack and as Director of the Kidon he naturally would have been informed if Mossad had such intel. Especially considering his own son had been born in Khan Yunis and was well known for his constant traversing between the village and Israel.

Several high ranking members of Mossad recognised the comment for the warning that it was and had also emerged claiming to have had no idea that such a missile launch had been planned; certainly they would never have condoned it knowing the risk of a Mossad operative being in the region at the time.

Director Adir and Schmuel Rubenstein had taken refuge in their palatial mansion, refusing to give comments or issue any official reports.

Eli, Ziva and Kate spent hours discussing this, trying to figure out what their next move would be, whether Adir would resign or if they should call for his resignation. The Israeli government would never charge one of their own with a war crime, not without running the risk of destabilising their party, but people the world over were crying out in horror and fury- they would have to take some action lest they be considered the instigators.

In the interim, the David's made sure to spread themselves across Israel, ensuring their outrage over the massacre was known and gathering support from the Israeli Palestinians and Christian Palestinians alike, many of whom followed their lead in attending services to mourn the dead.

Many like Kate were dressed in black as she knelt in the pew, bringing her hands together in prayer and squeezing them so tightly her knuckles turned white.

She wasn't thinking of the death in Khan Yunis however, the death she was mourning was even closer to home.

* * *

In the commotion caused by Ari returning home and his family coming to celebrate and confirm his life with their own two hands, the pregnancy test had flown Kate's mind until her lover had discovered it the next morning. When she had taken it after breakfast it had read positive, when she'd gone to the bathroom after lunch she'd found spotting in her underwear and before the afternoon was out she was bleeding.

Technically she had been due for her period and technically it was possible that the test had given them a false positive. But despite this Kate believed that she had been carrying Ari's child and that the horror of Khan Yunis and her temporary belief that he had been dead had caused her to miscarry.

Somehow this had shattered them both in a way nothing else had.

Ari had consented to one public appearance at the Western Wall, but after that he had withdrawn from the world and even his own family. He spent his days on his mother's old prayer mat in the living room, sometimes sitting there for hours on end, joined by Tony whom Eli had brought in the hopes of giving his son some comfort. Kate's dog would curl up on a cushion beside the mat and watch her owner with sad eyes, sensing his silent grief.

Since the night they had last made love Kate had said nothing more to him about returning to Washington but she instinctively knew that where she went Ari would follow.

After all, he believed that she was all he had left.

* * *

A/N- See darker- Ari's grief is going to be exceptionally evident in following chapters


	14. Chapter 14

A/N- Thank you for all your lovely reviews, they do help get the chapters out faster- although so do uni holidays. Anyhow, here we are and Merry Christmas

* * *

_ISRAELI GOSSIP MAGAZINE!_

_Caitlin forced to leave Israel._

_(Cut to photo of Caitlin Todd walking down a street, handbag in hand)_

_Officer Caitlin Todd of Mossad, girlfriend of Mossad Officer Ari Haswari and confidant of Eli and Adina David has been forced to leave Israel on the orders of Mossad Director Adir and the recently resigned Officer Schmuel Rubenstein._

_"It's horrible" a close friend tells IGM, "She and Ari are so much in love and there was even talk of them getting married and now this!"_

_Caitlin Todd, who first came to notice in 2004 when, in a controversial move, she was hired by Mossad only hours after she resigned from NCIS and left America to be with her boyfriend, is well known for being much loved by the David family. From the moment she entered Israeli society on the arms of Adina and Ziva David she has risen from one star to the next, attending numerous charity functions and helping ease tensions between Christian and Jewish Israeli's,_

_(Cut to photo of Caitlin Todd in a sapphire blue gown at a dinner with a rabbi and Catholic priest)_

_"Katie is an amazingly tolerant person" a source tells us, "She treasures people from all walks of life and would never dream of discriminating someone based on the colour of their skin or their religion"_

_Which she would have to be considering her partner is an Israeli Palestinian. Doctor Ari Haswari has long since been outspoken regarding supposed 'war crimes' committed in Gaza and is well known for aiding emergency crews after attacks upon the Palestinians, often at the risk of his own life._

_(Cut to blurred photo of Ari Haswari at the scene of a roadside bombing)_

_Despite this it is clear Caitlin and Doctor Haswari love each other, they are often seen out and about in Tel Aviv together and were considered a blessed couple- until Khan Yunis._

_(Cut to long shot photo of Ari Haswari and Caitlin Todd having lunch at a cafe)_

_The death of ten thousand and one Palestinian civilians has cast a pall over Tel Aviv's sweethearts, Caitlin has been spotted numerous times wearing mourning clothes and is reported to be attending multiple Catholic Masses to pray for the souls of the dead._

_"I suppose it would be hard on any couple" our relationship counsellor tells us, "Because Doctor Haswari knew so many of those killed he will naturally be grieving and of course poor Caitlin is completely lost...I mean how do you comfort someone in this situation?"_

_How indeed? IGM can report that while Eli, Adina and Ziva have continued their professional and social obligations Doctor Haswari hasn't been seen in Tel Aviv in over a month, leading to speculation that he has returned to Gaza or sought refuge from his grief in Haifa, where the David family are known to keep a beach house, leaving Caitlin stranded during this difficult time._

_Or perhaps he has gone into hiding for his own safety?_

_There has been suggestion that the attack on Khan Yunis- now known to have been illegally ordered by former Mossad officer Schmuel Rubenstein, who neither had the authority or the intel necessary to permit such an act, came just hours after a blazing row between himself and Caitlin Todd where he allegedly threatened the life of Doctor Haswari if Caitlin did not leave Israel._

_Schmuel Rubenstein has since explained to the press that this is false and that he was offering Caitlin the position of Mossad ambassador in Washington D.C so she could return to her former city but several sources have deemed this unlikely as Caitlin Todd lacks the experience and qualifications necessary to take the role of ambassadorship. Indeed this unasked for promotion has caused outrage in the intelligence community and is voiced by none other than Deputy Director Eli David himself, in a statement released to several newspapers,_

_"While no-one could be happier than I to see Officer Todd rise through the ranks of Mossad, for Director Adir to send her to Washington as a Mossad ambassador is ridiculous...she is not an Israeli citizen and...has not been trained for this role"_

_Yet it appears that despite many protests, some coming even from Officer Todd herself that preparations are underway for her to return to America- with her boyfriend and his half-sister in tow._

* * *

"I think...that if Tali had lived...she would have been a lot like you"

Kate swallowed and unbidden tears came to her eyes, she was unbelievably touched by the words just spoken by Eli David.

They were standing in Ben Gurion airport, civilians streaming around them, headed in multiple directions, not even glancing at the two renowned officers situated outside a little cafe in the main area, opposite a news stand where numerous tabloid magazines were splattered with photos of their family members.

It had been a month since the Khan Yunis massacre and Adir was still Director of Mossad- barely, Schmuel Rubenstein had taken full blame for the missile attack and resigned but criticism was still being launched at the two men and protests were taking place in the streets of Tel Aviv.

Some rumoured to have been organised by Ari Haswari himself.

When Kate had led Eli aside one morning and asked if there was any way for her and Ari to return to Washington, the man had nearly jumped at the idea and gone about reorganising the Mossad bureaucracy in America to try and wrangle a place for both of them. Not because of any desire to get rid of her, but because anyone could see that Ari clearly wasn't coping with the Khan Yunis massacre.

He'd started smoking again, a habit he'd developed during his time in the IDF and quickly dropped when he went to Edinburgh; he'd given up drinking and spent a ridiculous amount of time in prayer and if interrupted by Kate or someone else became cold and unresponsive. He had nightmares where he relived the attack and the bloodshed and tried to avoid them by exhausting himself through making love to her- only she could tell whenever he held her that he wasn't seeing her or feeling her but his own driving need to forget the demons that haunted him.

Then came the night when she had been doing the dishes and he had come up behind her, embraced her and suggested they go to bed early. She had spent the day dealing with Mossad politics and then a doctor's appointment to ensure that her miscarriage had in no way affected her ability to conceive only to be brusquely told by the doctor that considering it had been too early to truly without-a-doubt confirm if the test was even a false positive or not she should be fine. When Ari had begun unbuttoning her trousers, she had snapped and spun around slapping him across the face, screaming that if he wanted to have sex every night he should go and find a prostitute.

He'd only glared at her with cold dead eyes, told her he'd only need to find a decent girlfriend and then stormed out. He hadn't come home that night and Caitlin had cried herself to sleep and gone to see Eli the next day, spending hours online organising tickets and looking for a place for them to live, her little house having long since been rented out to a nice young family. Then around lunch time Ziva had burst into the office and turned on the television to show a news program running footage of Director Adir's house in flames. Everything around the scene was chaotic but it appeared somebody had hurled a handmade explosive onto the man's property.

And Ari was missing.

It had been another two days before he had come home, at which point the police themselves had requested to see him and Mossad were quietly exhausting every lead they had and trying to downplay the situation. Kate had returned to her apartment after being escorted to the local police station and subjected to a round of interrogation by men who believed she knew where her boyfriend was, only to find her boyfriend sitting at their dining table looking at the travel itinerary she had printed off.

Ari claimed that he had gone to Gaza that very night and not returned to Israel until an hour earlier. When questioned by Mossad he provided several alibis from Khan Yunis that swore to have seen him there and spoken to him and even surrendered a log book from the Palestinian entrance point to Gaza which showed him arriving only an hour after he'd left Caitlin and leaving again at the time he'd stated.

The police and Mossad were forced to let the matter drop- even though there was no evidence in Israel of him ever having approached the country's exit point; and the fact that he'd left his wallet and identification in the apartment and didn't give an explanation as to the means of transport he'd used to get to Khan Yunis. And then there had been a witness walking their dog near Director Adir's house who'd described a suspect that greatly resembled Ari Haswari.

At this point Eli had placed his son under unofficial house arrest and ordered him to stay put until the car came to take him to the airport, granting him temporary sick leave from Mossad and restricting his access to the outside world as much as he was able.

Of course it was clear Ari had every intention of flouting these orders, knowing that Eli wouldn't risk placing guards outside the apartment door in case word got out, but thankfully his father one-upped him and put Ziva on security detail, safe in the knowledge that his daughter wouldn't hesitate to throw a punch at her brother if necessary.

Kate took to avoiding the apartment as much as possible; spending her free time at Ziva's studying the basics to prepare herself for whatever position Eli ended up getting her in Washington. Officially she was still receiving the Mossad ambassadorship but in truth the Israeli embassy was working to piece together a role that she was actually qualified for. Nobody was quite sure what Ari would do when he got there but thankfully Ziva had also requested a position in the Israeli embassy, determined to be on hand if matters escalated further.

Hence the reason Kate was able to stand in the airport without worrying about her boyfriend in the departures lounge, Ziva was with him, so she reached out and squeezed Eli's arm,

"Not as stubborn or rude as you of course" he quickly added, "But she was the only one of us that had compassion"

"Are you saying I'm compassionate?" she asked, trying to figure out the compliment in his words,

"Is there any other virtue that would keep you at Ari's side during this time?" he asked sadly, taking her arm and leading her to the departures gate, where she stopped and impulsively hugged him,

"I love him" she whispered in his ear, "I swear and I'll never leave him"

"I won't hold you to that Caitlin" Eli kissed her hair, "What my son is going through is going to get a lot worse before it gets better"

Kate pulled away and wiped at her eyes, "I was handpicked to serve the President of the United States and I lived everyday with Gibbs when he was obsessively hunting your son, trust me Eli I can handle whatever he throws my way"

She handed her ticket to the guard at the gate and after he checked her carryon bag, he waved her through; she turned back and blew a kiss at Eli causing the man to laugh as she darted through the large partition into the large duty free departures lounge.

* * *

Ari felt very close to snapping.

He was in the smokers lounge, rolling his eighth cigarette of the day and dutifully ignoring his sister who in turn was dutifully ignoring the lustful stares of the numerous men in the lounge and standing barely a meter from him and silently staring at him,

"Can I help you?" he asked, lighting the end and inhaling deeply,

"Doubtful" she answered, continuing her placid stare,

"Then leave" he ordered but she didn't shift in the slightest, reminding him so much of when they were children and she would stand and look at him until he figured out what exactly she wanted.

At the moment though, he couldn't be bothered humouring her. Taking the cigarette from his mouth and leaving it burning on the counter, he brushed past her and exited the lounge, his eyes stinging from the relatively fresh air of the departures area. Groaning at a sudden headache, he merged into the crowd as quickly as possible, hoping that Ziva lingering to butt out the cigarette, tear the paper and scatter the tobacco would be long enough to successfully hide from her.

After all he was already through the check in point and he didn't doubt for a second that his father had scattered enough operatives throughout the airport so that any attempt to escape would have him apprehended within a good five minutes- what was the point of running?

There wasn't anything left for him in Israel anyway.

Sensing something in the corner of his eye, Ari turned and was distracted from his self-pitying musings by the sight of Caitlin sitting in the member's departure lounge, a magazine in one hand and a coffee being placed before her by a waitress. There wasn't really anywhere else for him to go, so he made his way over, fetching his card from his wallet as Ziva finally caught up to him. However upon, reaching the entrance to the private lounge, the steward didn't even look at the identification but rushed to open the glass door and greet them in a fawning tone,

"Doctor Haswari, Miss David...how lovely to see you today, can I get you anything?"

It was beneath Ari to acknowledge this pathetic creature beyond a disinterested glance, he leaves it to Ziva to make nice with the idiot- he figures that if she is so determined to stop him from self- assured destruction she can play his personal assistant while she's at it. Instead he crosses the room in long strides and takes the seat at the table with Caitlin; she doesn't even look up but frees the hand holding the magazine and reaches out to link her fingers with his.

It's moments like this that remind him of what it feels like to be human.

He squeezes her hand and brings it to his lips, turning it over to kiss the wrist, not caring if they were being watched. Every aspect of their lives was being put in trash magazines anyway, the only surprise was that Hamas and Al-Qaeda hadn't realised he was a mole yet.

Hopefully when they killed him the love of his life and his sister would be far, far away- and Adir really, _really_ close.

The kiss brings a faint blush to her cheeks and she glances up from her magazine to give him a secretive smile, as though they are engaging in forbidden but irresistible actions.

She is the one good thing left in his life.

"Marry me" he whispers to her, and she tilts her head, his words so quiet she has to take time to process the plea. When she does, she smiles and lifts their joint hands to kiss his knuckles,

"Not yet" she replies and because he knew the answer before he even asked the question, he's not too disappointed this time.

It's not the first time Ari Haswari has asked Caitlin Todd to marry him.

The first time was the morning he'd discovered the pregnancy test sitting on their bathroom sink, the second time was when it had tested positive, the third when she'd miscarried and at least once every two days since.

He knew he loved Caitlin more than he had anything else in his life, but he also knew that if they became engaged now, with him in his current state they wouldn't last six months. It didn't stop him from asking though, and the moment he found a way back from the hell he'd entered, he knew she'd say yes.

Ziva finally arrived, followed closely by a waitress carrying a tray of cucumber sandwiches and juice,

"Food" she announced simply, taking Ari's free hand and then Caitlin's other hand and squeezing it, forming a little triangle.

"Did she say yes this time?" she asked curiously and Caitlin answered by shaking her head, his sister only shrugged however and broke the hold to help herself to the food,

"Better luck next time"

* * *

Abigail Scuito wasn't entirely sure what she was doing at Dulles airport.

Well, actually she had a fair idea.

Tobias Fornell had dropped past NCIS today and announced Kate's impending return to the team, despite all the political furore happening in Israel, Kate had still been given a position at the Israeli embassy in Washington.

It had been nearly four years since Abby had last seen her best friend- or even talked to her. In the beginning her presumed betrayal of the team for their enemy had left the Goth too shocked and hurt to do anything but delete the emails and shred the letters sent to her, and when some semblance of the truth had come out, too much time had passed and it had seemed inappropriate and wrong to contact her.

But when Jenny Sheppard had come down to her lab and invited her to come to Dulles airport with her, she'd found herself getting into the car before she could even think it over.

Though she couldn't help but feel nervous when the flight the plane from Israel was announced and ten minutes later people started trickling through the arrival gates.

Abby rather hoped that when Kate walked through the doors, their eyes would instantaneously meet and they would run into each other's arms with all troubles and issues forgotten.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Distracted by an awesome fluoro pink Mohawk, Abby's attention wasn't brought back to the arrivals gate until the blinding flash of a camera caught her eye. Her eyes flew to the gates just in time to see Kate automatically recoil and look around for a place to hide from the small gathering of press. She was quickly joined by Ari Haswari and a short woman Abby didn't recognise and, after a moment's hesitation, the three of them began a brisk walk away from the arrival gate and strode towards the exits, keeping their eyes anywhere but the crowd of men with camera's shouting questions.

Abby shouted too, but only Kate's name and she saw her head shoot up a few times, clearly trying to locate the source of the familiar noise. Then Jenny grabbed her arm and they were speeding along after the trio, quickly outrunning the reporters who were circling and moving slowly in the clear hopes of blocking the three from leaving and getting more photos, maybe even a comment.

It wasn't likely though, Ari Haswari had the lead and was too tall and imposing a figure not to be able to cut a path where he wanted one to be, Kate and Ziva followed quickly in his steps acting as though they couldn't hear the questions being screamed at them, some in Hebrew, some in English, none of them worth replying to.

When a gap formed between two reporters, Jenny managed to squish her and Abby through and suddenly they were directly in front of the trio, recognition causing both Ari and the smaller woman to stop in surprise,

"Jenny?" the Israeli woman exclaimed, and Abby saw Jenny's predatory grin,

"Shalom Officers David, Todd, Doctor Haswari" she called, raising her voice to be heard above the noise of the cameras, "I am proud to welcome to America allies in our war on terrorism and black market weaponry..."

Abby felt dread sink like a lead weight in her stomach when she realised that Jenny hadn't come for purely social reasons, but was making some sort of political manoeuvre and had brought her along in the hopes she would delay the trio's escape from the press. Abby felt sick when she realised that there was nothing she could do to stop this,

Fortunately Ari Haswari didn't feel the same way,

"Wouldn't it make more sense to wait until we'd unpacked first before forcing situations like this on us director?" he called, his deep voice carrying well across the din and emphasised by the guffaws of the reporters, "My partner, my sister and I have just escaped from one political war, we don't want to be dragged into another, despite who it is that does the dragging"

With that he surged forward, Kate's hand firmly grasped in his and Officer David hurrying behind, Jenny was knocked to the side and the reported swallowed the trio back up as they rushed to the airport doors where numerous taxis waited like save havens.

Seconds beforehand however, Kate finally met Abby's eyes, but instead of instantaneous forgiveness she just saw shock at her supposed betrayal.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N- Happy New Year people! Thanks for all the reviews I love you all!  
P.S- The house I'm referring to is actually on the market so you can google it and see the pictures if you want.

* * *

"I thought the whole point of your reality television stars was so that ordinary people could go about their live un-harassed by the media!" Ziva declared once she, Ari and Kate had jumped into a taxi and fled the media storm.

"I can't believe Jenny Sheppard tried such a shameless act in public" Ari commented, from the front passenger seat, which he had taken once he had seen Ziva and Kate safely into the back. He was rolling a cigarette now and Kate had to subtly kick his seat and shake her head to remind him smoking in taxis wasn't permitted in America.

"I can't believe she was with a devil worshipper" Ziva continued and Kate was reminded afresh of what her former best friend had done, it finally brought home to her the knowledge that she had been dodging for the last four years- that her former work colleagues and friends hated her.

Her first few months in Israel she had been able to use the excuse of her new busy life to ignore the fact that the emails she had sent to the team hadn't been returned, then she had gone into denial and focused all her attention on making new friends, such as Ziva and the girls from her language classes and church. The pain had eventually started to fade, although she would feel heart pangs whenever she smelt freshly sanded wood, saw a new movie, visited the technology department of Mossad, read an anthropology paper or saw a gothic stuffed toy. Those pangs, the pain and humiliation could usually be smothered by forcing her mind to other things, but now she was back in Washington, amongst the streets she had loved, it hurt like a physical pain.

"That was a Goth Ziva" Ari corrected, "They don't necessarily worship Satan they just dress in...odd clothing"

Ziva gave a little humph and fell back in her seat, looking out the window like any child in a new place, but just as Kate turned to her own window, she felt Ziva's hand snake across and link with hers. Funny how a few years ago Ziva would never have considered such friendly gestures necessary, often when Kate had reached out to touch her shoulder or correct her hair she would flinch and glare as if Kate meant to attack her. Ari and Eli seemed to be the only ones to elicit comfortable physical contact from her and even that had been fleeting, however after what Kate assumed to be several months of study, Ziva had begun making attempts of physical affection, patting her shoulder, squeezing her arm, eventually she began to see Kate as an extension of Ari and now whenever she needed comfort or wanted to give it she could do so with hardly a wince.

* * *

She released her hand now, but that was only because the taxi had pulled to a stop outside of the house they were to be staying in. A year back Mossad had started buying property listed around their embassies the world over, renting them out, using them as safe houses or keeping them for operatives to stay in. This one was a street away from International drive, a three bedroom, two and a half bathroom house on Veazey Street.

They already knew the third bedroom was being occupied by a retired Mossad operative, he came to the door as the taxi drove off, leaving three suitcases that they wheeled up the tiled path, three stairs and onto the small veranda,

"So" the man grunted, looking at them with an appraising eye, "You're it then?"

Kate nodded and, when she realised that the stranger and her two companions were having some sort of Mossad staring competition, stepped forward and held out her free hand,

"Officer Todd" she introduced but he only sniffed and turned around, heading inside. Following him Kate first looked left where she saw a stunning living room, decorated in soft cream colours with a fireplace and two large windows that showed the street, she could imagine sitting there on a cold winters night and looking out onto the world. Placing her suitcase just inside the room she strode through the large arch and found the dining room, small but cosy, with large bookshelves and another window that poured light into the room. It led onto the kitchen where she encountered Ari and Ziva passing through, listening to the stranger as he rattled quickly in Hebrew, the kitchen itself wasn't large and she opened the door beside the counter, sticking her head out and seeing what she presumed to be the walkway to the laundry.

"Nosy isn't she?" the man commented as Kate breezed past them with a friendly smile, out into the hallway and up the stairs stepping into a sun room, there were books scattered across the floor and a warm blanket on one of the white chairs, clearly their housemate had been here when they had arrived. Choosing one of the three doors she found that he had already claimed the master bedroom with ensuite bathroom, but walking back out and checking the other two bedrooms she decided she didn't mind. The furniture of her and Ari's bedroom was obviously new; the bed was a king, the bed linen a standard white and the built-in wardrobe taking up a good part of the left wall, the right wall containing two windows that looked out onto their big backyard. She could see the beginnings of a garden patch and wondered what the stranger was attempting to grow. Hearing footsteps behind her she looked over her shoulder to see Ari stepping into the room, carrying both their suitcases,

"Hi" she whispered, turning back to look out the window at the wintery day below,

"Shalom" he replied, dropping the cases to the floor and coming to stand next to her, folding his arms and sighing, they stayed like that for a while, listening to the quiet sounds of life around them, the wind in the trees and the sounds of Ziva moving around downstairs,

"So" she began, "What's our new friend like?"

Ari snorted, "His name is Happy, no birth name, no last name- just Happy, he will not answer to anything else and any attempt to discover his identity will be met with sheer abhorrence. He also requests that we clean our own messes, cook our own meals, do our own laundry and stay out of his possessions, any events such as dinner parties or lunches should be brought to his notice beforehand and as far as he is concerned, if we try any of the behaviour the gossip magazines have been accusing us of he will request we be deported- immediately" Ari sniffed disdainfully,

"I am also not allowed to smoke in the house"

Kate blinked and furrowed her brow at the list of demands, "Okay, well I guess when you're that old you're set in your ways"

He shook his head, "His parting comment to Ziva and I was 'In my day secret services were just that- secret! Agents didn't exist in the outside world and they certainly didn't allow their pictures to be put in trash rags', as if we chose to be followed by animals asking obscene questions"

With a bitter grimace he strode to the bed and fell back against it, Kate waited until he was lying on the doona with his legs on the floor before walking over, and straddling his waist, he reached up to hold her hips and she grinned,

"Welcome to Washington" she whispered leaning down and kissing him, he delved his tongue into her mouth and cupped the back of her head with his hand, they were just at the point of worrying about their open bedroom door when the door bell rang. They both frowned but ignored it until they heard their housemate 'Happy' call up the stairs,

"Hey Girl, it's for you"

Again they frowned, this time opening their eyes to gaze at each other before deciding one of Ziva's less socially approvable friends or 'contacts' as she called them must have dropped by and resumed their activities,

"Oi! _Gentile_ get down here, door for you"

Breaking off the kiss Kate made a sound of surprise and looked at her bedroom wall as though she could see through the plaster and down to the veranda where a mystery visitor awaited. Curious, she slid of Ari's lap, adjusted herself and headed out the bedroom and down the stairs, she could hear her boyfriend closing their door and reckoned he was probably keeping out of sight.

When she reached the front door she saw Happy standing there glowering at her and noticed a walking cane in his hand, "You weren't carrying that earlier" she noted curiously and he shot her a wicked grin,

"Technically I don't need one" he emphasised his point by walking away with a proud, healthy gait but at the last second whacked his cane hard against the wall, cracking the plaster and causing her to jump.

Making a mental note to call Eli and ensure that they were safe with Happy, Kate turned to the open door and froze,

"Tony?" she blurted, stunned beyond belief.

* * *

Anthony DiNozzo, Tony, stood at her front door with a sheepish grin on his face and despite the fact that three years had passed he still looked like the man she had quarantined herself for,

"Hey Kate" he greeted too cheerfully, overcompensating in his nervousness and she said the first thing that came to her mind,

"You cut your hair"

He grinned and bowed his head to show her his shorter style then looked at her own hair,

"And you haven't" he teased,

"It makes you look older" she commented, and he leered,

"Makes you look hotter"

"Jerk" she snapped,

"Prude" he returned,

They both grinned but the tension was still there, with a wordless gesture Kate motioned Tony into the living room and he sat down on the couch, with her in the nearby armchair, curling her legs underneath her. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments, neither quite sure what to say to the other, a yawning gap between them,

"So...how was Israel?" Tony managed finally and eager for the conversation starter, Kate nodded,

"Good...great, challenging, rewarding, exhausting, invigorating..." she knew she was rambling but she couldn't seem to stop until she heard Happy smack his cane against the wall,

"Oi gentile, add some nouns to those adjectives"

Both of them stared in the direction of the kitchen and then looked at each other wearing identical expressions of bemusement,

"Who _is_ that guy?" he mouthed and she only shrugged shaking her head,

"No idea, but considering how crazy he is, we're pretty sure he's Mossad"

He laughed, "Yeah I've heard some stories about crazy Mossad agents...Eli David for example"

Kate laughed, "I can tell you now that every rumour about him is one hundred percent true, except for the one where he's my secret lover, that's just tabloid gossip"

"Oh so you're over your thing for married men?"

She picked up the pillow she was leaning against and aimed it for his head, he ducked and laughed, "Told you single women couldn't be friends with married men" he teased and she scowled,

"Explains why you're not married yet" she responded and he grinned widely before seeing her face fall,

"I saw Abby at the airport" she began, studying Tony's face for any signs of comprehension or guilt, when she saw nothing but curiosity mixed with concern, she continued,

"Jenny Sheppard tried to stage a political scene as Ari, Ziva and I were surrounded by press, she tried to make it look like we supported her...and I think Abby was there to distract me long enough for it to work"

Tony frowned and blinked in surprise, "Are you sure? That doesn't sound very Abby like"

Kate gave him a sad smile, "Four years ago I was her best friend, then I ran off with the man Gibbs hates more than anyone, none of you ever replied to my emails or letters and..."

"What emails and letters?" Tony asked, and now it was her turn to be surprised,

"I sent you all emails when I arrived to assure you guys that I hadn't been kidnapped and then another when I joined Mossad explaining what I was doing, when none of them were replied to I sent letters...I even sent them through official channels so I knew they would reach NCIS"

Tony shook his head, "I never got anything from you Kate, I mean I waited but I figured you were embarrassed or pissed or something"

She floundered in an ocean of uncertainty, "That doesn't make sense, unless..."

She jumped to her feet, "Ari!" her loud call reached the ends of the house and certainly the bedroom where her lover was hiding, "Ari what happened to my letters?"

She pounded up the stairs, Tony on her heels and was on the second floor before Ari appeared at their bedroom door, rubbing his face as though he'd fallen asleep.

"What letters?" he asked with a yawn, not even bothering to acknowledge DiNozzo's presence,

"The emails and letters I sent to NCIS-apparently none of them got through, what happened to them?"

To an unfamiliar eye he didn't change in the slightest, but Kate knew him well enough to see him stiffen, she glared even as her mind whirled trying to figure the perpetrator out, "It wasn't you" she decided, "You wouldn't dare and knew I was yours either way, Ziva couldn't care less and Eli knew about my resignation from NCIS, so who...Adir or Rubenstein?"

He flinched, "Neither" he admitted and she tensed her crossed arms and stepped into his personal space, "Ari, if it _was_ you so help me..."

He frowned, clearly confused by her sudden lack of trust, "Your letters were being intercepted on the other side of the Pacific ocean Caitlin, Eli guessed they might not be getting through so we traced them as far as the Navy Yard, after that we don't know what happened to them, your emails..." he stopped and looked down at her with a touch of pity, "They were being electronically intercepted and resent through to an empty inbox where they were manually deleted"

She glared and when she spoke next her voice was dangerously low, "_Who_?"

"We...accessed the NCIS database and traced the IP address to the forensics lab," he paused when he saw the hurt look on her face "but that doesn't necessarily mean..."

"Save it" she muttered, turning away and looking to Tony, standing there with bewilderment and disbelief etched onto every part of his being, "Kate, Abby might have been angry with you but are you entirely sure..."

'_you can trust him?' _

Kate heard the unspoken part of Tony's argument, as surely as Ari himself heard it, behind her she felt him bristle,

"You're more than welcome to run your own investigation Agent DiNozzo, I am merely telling you what Mossad found, if NCIS reaches a different conclusion I will be more than happy to apologise"

Kate released a soft bitter laugh, "A formal investigation would be the talk of the Navy Yard, there's no way they could condone it without jeopardizing Abby's entire career" she sighed and walked over to Tony, linking her arm through his, "It's late, you should go"

They reached the front door before Tony turned back, "Kate..." he began but she cut him off by reaching up and hugging him, "Thanks for stopping by Tony, I missed you"

He hugged her back so tightly her back hurt, "I missed you too,"

He looked like he wanted to say more but she ushered him out the door, closing it and leaned against the wall, slowly sinking to the floor.

That was where Ziva found her as she bounded down the stairs, dressed in tracksuit pants and an old, worn IDF t-shirt,

"Too much energy," she explained when Kate asked where she was going, "I have to sleep tonight if I am to adjust my body clock"

Kate nodded but didn't move, forcing Ziva to partially open the door and slide through, Ari appeared a few moments later, mimicking her position and sitting next to her, she leaned her head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm about her,

"Should I apologise now or should I wait?" he enquired quietly and she blinked, turning her face to his,

"Why didn't you tell me my messages were being blocked?" she asked and he sighed, "I wanted to spare you the pain Caitlin, we couldn't be sure if Gibbs and his team were aware that their mail was being intercepted and I was worried that if you knew and tried to contact them via phone that they would hurt you further than they already had"

She reached up and stroked his chin with her thumb, "In future worry less about my feelings and more about what my reaction will be if I find out you've been keeping things from me- we went through this before Ari, I don't want secrets between us"

He nodded and kissed her to seal his promise, "No more secrets, even mundane detail of my life will be yours for the knowing"

She smirked and they resumed their position on the floor, neither of them willing to move lest they break the sudden peace they had found after several weeks of grief and turmoil.

"I love you" she murmured, and he grinned,

"I love you as well basherte"

* * *

A/N- Tell me what you think so I know where to take the story


	16. Chapter 16

A/N- I think you lovely reviewers will like the ending of this chapter

* * *

The next morning Kate walked the ten minutes to the Israeli embassy, arriving just before ten and meeting Amit Hadar- a long time friend of the David's and a relatively cheerful man, albeit the heaviest smoker she had ever known. She almost choked on the stench of tobacco emanating from his expensive suit when he caught her in a bear hug,

"How are you?" he asked, sweeping her from the foyer and through the halls to the Mossad section of the building,

"Good," she replied simply, feeling safe and secure with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, the man was like an uncle to her, albeit an uncle who'd once drunkenly offered her and Ziva twenty thousand dollars for a three way. Pushing fifty but still ridiculously handsome, Amit Hadar was one of Mossad's most eligible bachelors but once she got past the legions of women he slept with, Kate saw a man who'd adopted himself into the David circle and been a father to Ari, Ziva and Tali during the times Eli had been out of the country.

"How is _he_?" Amit continued, under his breath as he held a door open for her, Kate shrugged quietly and moved towards the office with his name on the door,

"No idea, I reckon the move's been good for him but I have no idea what he's planning to do here"

Amit huffed, "Certainly not liaison work, the only people not afraid of him are the CIA"

"And Jenny Sheppard" Kate quipped starkly, entering his office to sit down before his desk, this time Amit's rumbling laugh filled the elegant space as he clipped a cigar, "Ah that woman, she could not have picked a worse time, Haswari is like a snake at the moment, one can never be sure when he'll strike...cigar, cigarette?"

She dismissed his offer as he sat down at his desk, "I'd prefer not to get lung cancer"

He huffed again, "I'd prefer not to see fifty, unfortunately the way things are going I may have to do a third round in the IDF or I could make a pass at Haswari, get him to shoot me, tell me how does he feel about homosexuality?"

She grinned and played along with the game, "He supports gay rights"

Amit raised his eyebrows eagerly, "Really? What time can I come over?"

She was laughing now, "Hand off my man Hadar...wow I never thought I'd have to say that"

He gave her a mock glare, "Just for that, you can start work today. Now, as you know, you're not qualified to be a Mossad ambassador, however you have worked and liaised with numerous federal agencies so you know how to communicate and negotiate with them"

He gestured to three boxes on the office floor, "These contain files and intel that we know would be of use to the Americans and that we wish to give them, however..."

"You want to get something in return" she finished for him, nodding, "So you want me to be an information trader, figure out what goes where and who'll pay the highest price for it"

"Figuratively speaking yes" he sighed regretfully, "Unfortunately we can't actually put a monetary price on this information without coming under departmental scrutiny and being accused of selling information to the highest bidder"

She frowned, "Which we _are_ doing and I'm pretty sure the U.S do as well"

He huffed, "Yes but we can't be seen doing it, we can trade in supplies, soldiers, anything that doesn't have pictures of presidents on them"

She nodded again and then bent to drag the boxes to her and lift one in her arms while Amit lifted the other two, "So I have the security clearance for all this right?" she asked tentatively as he led her from his office and down the hall, to a door that had her name on it,

"You have the clearance to do everything but hand the information to the enemy- at which point I will fire your pretty ass Officer Todd"

Kate smirked as they entered her office, decked out in much the same way as Hadar's, dark wood panelling, antique desk, fire place in the corner, green couch, drinks cabinet and bookshelves.

"Isn't that sexual harassment?" she teased and he rolled his eyes, dropping the box on her desk,

"Tell Haswari, I'm telling you I only have six months till I'm fifty years old!"

She shook her head and pushed him from the office, "I'll tell you when I'm done"

He turned around in the doorway and gave her an evil grin, "Tell your assistant and she'll bring you the rest"

Kate froze in the act of closing the door, "How many more boxes are there?"

He shrugged innocently, "Oh one or two"

One or two boxes turned out to be the number that arrived weekly, as explained to her by the assistant who showed her the storage room down the hall. When Kate stared at the towers of plain office boxes and asked why the hell there was so many, the young female assistant explained that politics kept the information from being shared.

Kate spent the rest of the day in her new office, setting up several trays each labelled with the acronym of an agency and reading each file carefully before trying to figure out who it would best go to. Her assistant brought her tea and a man with a food cart brought her lunch. By midafternoon she had managed to get through one and a half of the boxes and learnt that the information didn't as much concern immediate threats as it did names and details of those who either sabotaged American projects overseas or at home, donated money to dangerous groups or were in contact with suspicious people, little facts that would aid the agencies immensely when they were handed over.

The only problem she had was how to go about it.

She stared at her mobile phone for five minutes, trying to work up the nerve before she scrolled through her contact list and dialled the number of an old friend from her Secret Service days. Three rings before it answered,

"Kate?" a hesitant voice said and she smiled,

"Hi Sally" she began feigning cheerfulness, "I'm back in Washington and was wondering if you'd like to meet for coffee?"

Deliberately choosing a cafe halfway between her house and the embassy, Kate arrived a few minutes after five to find Sally Overbridge already sitting at a table, tapping her cup nervously, giving her a quick wave, she hurried over, slipping off her jacket and hanging on the back of her chair. Sally stood up,

"Kate" she began, not smiling as she looked her up and down, "You've look different"

Kate blushed and self-consciously smoothed her pristine ash pantsuit, knowing it brought out her tan, dark ponytail and deep red lipstick, "I'll take that as a compliment" she decided, forcing herself to remain cheerful as she sat down, waving the waitress over and ordering a green tea.

Being used to interrogation techniques, Kate sat there with a serene complexion while Sally grew more and more nervous until the tea arrived and she suddenly burst out, "So why did you want to see me?"

Kate shrugged innocently, "What a girl needs an excuse to catch up with an old friend?"

Sally tapped the side of her nearly empty coffee cup, "Well...it's just...you said you had something for me"

Kate reached down into her handbag, talking as she went, "Remember that attack on the President in Geneva two years back?"

Sally nodded, "Two Secret Service agents killed, perpetrator got away, nobody ever found him"

Kate lifted her head back up and smiled, "Correction, the Americans never found him; however Mossad operatives identified him in Cairo six months back when they infiltrated a radical Al-Qaeda cell"

She laid the folder on the table and pushed it over, "His name, his picture, his position in the cell, everything we know about him and everything you need to put a bullet through him"

Sally was speechless but managed to snatch up the folder with amazing speed, "Thank-you" she finally gushed after pouring over the details with her own eyes, "But what is this going to cost me?"

Kate grinned and sipped her tea, "As if I'd demand something from a friend, I'm merely acting as a concerned Mossad operative to help eliminate a dangerous threat on the life of the President, I'm sure he'll appreciate knowing he has a reliable ally in the state of Israel"

Kate waited for Sally to get the drift and when she saw the light go on behind her friend's eyes she placed some money on the table and stood, grabbing her jacket and sliding it back on, coming around the table, Sally took her free hand and gripped it tightly,

"Thank-you again Kate" she murmured warmly, "You're a good friend"

Kate smiled and clapped her hand over hers, "I'd say the same" she began, matching her tone to Sally's, "If it weren't for the fact that you screwed me over _again_"

Mortification bloomed across the woman's face as she began to deny this accusation, but Agent Fornell, whom Kate had spotted enter after her and sit partially hidden in a nearby booth, got to his feet with a sigh and lumbered over,

"Agent Todd" he grunted, holding out his hand after Kate dragged her manicured nails from Sally's grasp and shook his, "Officer" she corrected, "And I was just leaving"

"I'll walk you out" he offered as she swept to the door, "Not necessary" she called back, nodding her thanks at a man who held it open for her,

"I insist" he retorted, catching up to her and taking her elbow with his hand, "It'll give us a chance to..."

"Ah Caitlin there you are"

They both looked down the pavement as Ari approached, dressed warmly against the winter chill and looking so handsome that Kate wanted to kiss him.

Agent Fornell clearly didn't share that desire,

"Officer Haswari" he spat the word from his mouth like vomit, "What a pleasant surprise"

Kate saw the amusement dancing in her boyfriend's eyes, "The feeling is mutual" he then turned to her, "I was just at the Israeli embassy catching up with Hadar, he's coming for dinner tonight unless you have other plans"

Grinning she shook her head, "Nope, completely free...goodnight Agent Fornell"

The FBI operative refused to release her elbow, "That file you gave Agent Overbridge..." he began but she cut him off, "That file was released with full permission of Mossad and the Israeli government, I gave it to Agent Overbridge because I believe it deserved the attention of the Secret Service, no I'm not going to give you a copy and yes I plan to pay the FBI the same courtesy if any information comes to me that I believe could be of use to you, _goodnight_ Agent Fornell"

With a quick twist she managed to break his hold and before he could protest had linked her arm through Ari's and they set off at a quick pace, keeping an eye out for any government issued vehicles that looked likely to speed up and arrest them.

They didn't stop until they reached their house, stopping outside on the pavement, panting slightly in the cold air; Kate faced her boyfriend and surreptitiously looked over his shoulder,

"See anything?" she asked quietly, putting her hands on his chest and finding his heartbeat, he reached down and gripped her waist, "One vehicle down the road doing surveillance, standard navy blue vehicle, similar model to what the FBI use, I'd have to get a closer look to be certain, although the man in the front passenger seat with the ridiculously large camera is a slight giveaway"

"Screw them" Kate spat in annoyance, "Screw them and everything they stand for"

He looked down at her with his crooked grin, "Agitated my precious?"

She looked up at him with a wicked grin in her eye, "I have some tension you could help me relieve"

"Ah, thought so" he bent down to kiss her and she gripped his shirt tighter as it quickly turned passionate. Knowing full well that they were being watched, Kate jumped up to straddle his waist and Ari supported her as he carried her up their front path to the veranda. They made out against the front door for a little longer than necessary before Ari slipped the house key out of his pocket and carried her inside, past a grumbling Happy and upstairs to their bedroom.

* * *

When Tobias turned up that very evening in his basement unannounced with an Italian dinner for three, Gibbs was honestly grateful for the distraction. The MCRT weren't been on call that weekend and Jenny didn't have to work Saturdays, which had left them wandering around the house deliberately avoiding each other and thus any conversation about the media coverage showing her underhand political manoeuvre being blown to pieces by Ari Haswari.

Last night he'd heard through the Navy Yard scuttlebutt that thirty minutes after the footage had gone to air she'd been called to MTAC and been publicly blasted by Secnav for humiliating NCIS. She'd disappeared shortly afterwards and Gibbs himself had gone home an hour later, everyone was walking around him on tiptoe terrified, Palmer had unthinkingly asked when they were going to see Kate, DiNozzo had been acting weird all day and Abby had started screening visitors to her lab, though she refused to tell him why.

So Gibbs was actually relieved to see Tobias until the man opened his mouth,

"Guess who I just ran into?"

There was no escaping it; he threw down his chisel in frustration,

"Aw hell Fornell, can't I just have one moment of peace and quiet without having to hear the words Mossad, operatives, officers, liaise or ex-team members?"

Fornell chuckled, "You can try but I doubt you'll succeed, not in present day Washington anyway"

Gibbs sighed, acknowledging his point and made a come-on gesture with his hands, waiting for the news. Fornell placed the fast food containers on the work bench before pulling up a stool and sitting down facing him,

"Well your _ex-team member Mossad operative officer_ Todd rang an old secret service buddy today to meet for coffee, Sally then rang me to see what the information was worth to me..."

"Ah" Gibbs muttered sarcastically, "cross-agency co-operation, ain't nothing like it"

Fornell snorted but continued as if he hadn't heard him, "So it appears that Todd is being given access to all Israeli information concerning the U.S and its overseas operations, she then gets to _liaise _with whichever agency she damn well wants to hand it over to them"

Gibb raised an eyebrow, "I assume you invited her to liaise?"

The answering glare lifted the Marine's spirits a little, he knew it was petty and childish but he liked knowing that if the chances of NCIS benefitting from this arrangement were non-existent, at least the FBI weren't having an easy time either.

"I was getting there but Haswari ran interception and gave her a getaway before we could even talk"

"And what about that bug you planted on her?" a voice called from the staircase, causing both men to look up and see Jenny descending with a glass of bourbon in hand and a hard expression on her face, Gibbs turned back to Fornell with his eyes raised in surprise although the man himself seemed a little shocked,

"How'd you know about that?" he demanded and Jenny smirked, coming up to her fiancée and resting her elbow on his shoulder, "Which agency do you think supplied the listening device? Your Director wanted plausible deniability in the event it gets found and it's a lot harder to do if he had to sign the clearance form for it"

Conceding with a discontent grumble Fornell shrugged, "It was a waste of time anyway, it only had a range of six feet and all we've got so far is three hours of fornicating and ten minutes of them arguing with a guy in Hebrew- which we translated" he added seeing the expectant look on their faces, "But it was nothing useful, just him propositioning them and Haswari threatening to make him live til sixty"

"Could that be code?" Jenny demanded quickly but Fornell shook his head, "Unlikely, they were in their bedroom and had no reason to speak in code"

"Unless they know about the bug" Gibbs suggested wryly, turning to the boat as Jenny walked over to the bench to refill her glass, "Doubtful otherwise they would have disposed of it or set up jamming devices in the house- which I'm surprised Haswari hasn't done already" she mused, "He must really be off his game"

Fornell made a sound of agreement, "I hear he's left Mossad permanently, working in the ER of St Mary's hospital, whoever thought that _incident_ could work to our advantage"

Gibbs dropped the tool he was holding and turned back to his fiancée and friend with such a cold expression on his face that their merriment was cut dead,

"Ten thousand killed isn't an incident Tobias" he whispered, "It's a tragedy and not something _anybody_ should try to benefit from" he gave them both a final look of disgust before jogging up the stairs "I'm going out"

They didn't try to follow him so he stepped out his front door where the chill night slapped him like a wakeup call. Looking down the street he started walking before he even knew where he was going, wanting to just get away from the sickening bureaucracy, subterfuge and lies taking place in his own house, in his own basement- he hated it, that wasn't who he was.

Ten thousand dead and Haswari was off his game. How many of those killed had the man known? How many had he considered friends or extended family? How many of them had he loved?

He was in the city before he could even register he had left the suburbs and walking through the hospital doors before he could even stop to consider his actions.

The nurse at the front desk checked him over warily, wondering what an unsuitably dressed man was doing wandering into the hospital so close to midnight, possibly homeless although he looked well kept, most likely he had wandered out of one of the mental facilities.

"Can I speak to...Doctor Haswari?" he asked quietly and the nurse had to check her database before she could place a face to the name. Ah yes, the new doctor, from the Gaza strip, rumoured to have been in that nasty massacre, friends with the Chief of Surgery.

"He's not in" she told him briskly, "He has a shift at midday tomorrow if you wish to come back then"

The man shook his head, "I'll leave him a message...can you make sure it gets to him please?"

She nodded, "Of course"

She handed him a notepad and pen and checked her computer screen while he scribbled a note. When he was done he thanked her politely and left, she waited until she was sure he was actually gone before checking the note,

_Bug on her jacket_

She raised her eyebrows, definitely a crazy one, oh well, perhaps he was a patient of the doctor, she shrugged and sealed it in an envelope, wrote the doctor's name on it and placed it in the hospital mail.

* * *

A/N- Yep, tell me what you think


	17. Chapter 17

A/N- Hey everyone this message is just to let you know that from now on I'm going to be writing shorter chapters, not because I'm getting lazy but because it sucks to try and read three thousand plus words in one go- something I remembered last night when reading another fanfic. Also I own nothing and feel free to review with compliments or flames.

* * *

It was rare for Ari Haswari to be alone in the house. With Happy being retired- officially at least- he spent most of his time upstairs reading, or in the garden talking to the roses he was trying to grow- the old man very rarely went out. Caitlin of course, was employed at the Israeli embassy and generally worked nine to five shifts, sometimes coming home later if she met with outside agencies to hand over information. Ziva, well he wasn't entirely sure what she was up to but she tended to disappear only for a few hours at a time, a night at the most. And he was a doctor in the emergency rooms of St Mary's which meant his shifts could change weekly, so he could start or finish work at five in the morning.

Because of this, the residents of the house tended to run into each other at some point during the day, if only for a few minutes at least. But today Ari had come home and found the two storey house empty. Unused to the quiet, he had said prayers and then he was out on the back veranda, lighting a cigarette and enjoying the winter twilight when the cordless phone lying beside his chair rang. Hoping that there hadn't been some freak accident that would call him back to work, he answered with caution,

"Doctor Haswari here"

The person on the other end hesitated, and he wondered for an irrational moment if one of his enemies had finally found him. Unlikely though, he knew half of Mossad had gone on a killing spree once his terrorist cover had presumably been blown by the tabloids splashing his name and face across their front pages. Anyone who was still alive and wanted him dead- on that side of the war anyway- were too powerless to reach across the ocean.

"Can I speak to Kate please?" a tentative female voice asked causing him to frown, trying to figure out who the caller was. Nobody really called the house for his lover; she received emails or text messages but rarely calls for social reasons. He knew that the lack of friends wanting to reacquaint with her upon her return to Washington upset her, though she refused to let it show or cling to him instead, just like Israel she was determined to forge a life where she wasn't defined by a boyfriend. Although she had been hurt by the comparative ease with which he had reunited with a college friend and been accepted into the man's social fold.

"She isn't home at the moment" he responded carefully, "You could try calling her at work or on her mobile"

Again the caller hesitated, setting off warning bells in Ari's mind, "I'm afraid I don't know the numbers"

"I'm sorry" he responded curtly, "Who is this?"

The woman sighed, "This is Mary Todd," she then added the unnecessary explanation,

"I'm Katie's mom"

Ari's eyes had gone wide and he had flicked the cigarette into the garden the moment he had heard her name, as if she would be able to sense that he had been holding such a stereotypical evil thing in his hand.

"Of course, forgive me; Caitlin has been meaning to introduce us since we arrived"

Actually, that was an untruth; Kate had told him in no uncertain terms that meeting her family would be like having tea with Adir and Rubenstein, unpleasant, possibly physically dangerous and the tea would be weak and full of sugar. When Ari had suggested that it was she was embarrassed to introduce him to the family she had laughed and told him it was the other way around.

"Besides" she had added, "I've never had a boyfriend who's survived a meeting with my sister"

"I'm your fiancé Caitlin" he'd pointed out but she only shrugged,

"That just means I'll be even more upset when you run off"

Ari had let the matter drop there, although considering his lover had survived meeting his father, step-mother and half sister, he did wonder if she wasn't exaggerating when she thought her family was the worst of the two.

"You're her boyfriend then?" Mary asked, "The Mossad officer?"

Haswari winced at that description, Mossad was mostly known to the civilian populations outside of Israel as the intelligence agency that kept getting caught with forged passports, in countries they had no permission to be in and usually in the middle of assassinating someone they legally had no right to.

Not the best impression for a fiancé's mother to have.

"Former Mossad operative" he explained, "I left to return to medicine"

"Medicine?" Mary questioned, the surprise clear in her voice, "You're a doctor as well? Abby didn't mention that"

Abigail Scuito had been the one to describe him to Caitlin's family? By Allah he might as well just go back to Israel now, by his reckoning the only people who could have given a more biased, unfriendly description of him would be Doctor Mallard or Gerald. He wondered if Mary Todd had been told the story of how he and Caitlin had first met.

Judging by what she said next, he sincerely doubted it,

"Well I was calling to invite you both over for lunch this coming Sunday, if you're available of course"

Haswari mentally scratched out the museum visit his lover had booked him and Ziva for and somehow managed to make polite talk with the woman on the other end until she had to go. By the time he hung up the phone he was craving a cigarette with previously uncharted desperation- and a couple of shots of tequila while he was at it. Thankfully Ziva chose that moment to walk in the front door,

"Where are we going?" she asked curiously as he pushed her back out, his jacket in one hand,

"The nearest bar" he told her, "And the nearest smoke store"

"First rounds on you right?" she queried as they hit the pavement, he snorted,

"And the six after that"

* * *

By the time Kate found Ari and Ziva, they were top high and bottle deep in tequila shots and had managed to drink three men under the table. She smiled and felt the day's tensions roll off her shoulders as Ari pulled her onto his lap,

"Shalom basherte" he grinned, kissing her shoulder, she smirked,

"Shalom drunk" she whispered in Hebrew, catching his mouth in a quick kiss as Ziva tried to build a pyramid out of her empty shot glasses,

"I need another level" she announced, then looking up, realised her brother and future sister-in-law were in the depths of a make-out session, and leaned back in her chair, tilting it dangerously and waved to the bartender,

"Stevie...uno mas s'il vous plait"

"You're mixing your languages" a man announced from the table next to her,

"And my liquors" she confided, smiling at him, "You are strange looking, your moustache looks like Fidel Castro's"

The man put his hand to it self-consciously, "My boss has ordered me to shave it off"

Ziva nodded, "He is right, you look like the main character of Nine and a half weeks"

Kate made a sound of surprise followed by what sounded like a submarine emerging from the ocean,

"Ziva, did you just make an American pop cultural reference?"

Ari was clearly less than interested by his half-sister's sudden acquired knowledge of American film and tried to draw Kate back in by pressing his lips to her neck but she pushed his face away, and stared at her friend who in turn smiled at the bartender who brought over three more vodka shots,

"I am integrating myself in American culture" Ziva explained after throwing her shot,

"It is part of an operative's job"

Kate laughed and helped herself to the alcohol, enjoying the feeling as it ran down her throat. Ari's hands were on her waist and she turned her face until it was a hair's breadth from him,

"Take me home?" she suggested, squealing when he scooped her in his arms and carried her bridal style out the door. He didn't release her until they were in the backyard of their home, they lay down on the back veranda, holding hands and staring up at the stars,

"So..." Kate began, her voice breaking through the silence, "What were you and Ziva celebrating?"

"My last night of heavy drinking for a while" he replied, causing her to frown in confusion,

"What?" she asked and he sighed, running his hand over his face,

"Your mother rang and invited us to lunch this Sunday, at which point I thought it might be a good idea to try climbing out of the dark hole my life has been in the last few months"

"Hey" Kate protested, turning to face him, "That's not true, you've been doing fine, sure it's been a little rough but what happened was horrible"

He smirked, "And the ocean is deep" he squeezed her hand, "I don't want to be this way Caitlin...I miss how I was before Khan Yunis, I miss how we were when we first met"

She laughed, "You mean you miss me lying face down on a hard surface while you feel me up?"

Even in the darkness she could see him blush at that memory, although she was glad she had cheered him up, "I meant after that Caitlin, when I used to sneak into your home and spend the night talking with you"

She nodded, remembering back to those forbidden nights, when her mind was a haze of confusion, attraction and fear. The overwhelming connection she felt to him, even when he kilometres from her and the warmth? No the calm she had felt when he magically appeared at her door.

"I miss them too" she told him, before resting her arm on his chest and propping her elbow on it to look at him,

"But Ari, they never felt real...I only saw you at night and we didn't sleep because you had to be gone before daybreak and I didn't want to miss a second...we could go months without seeing each other and I would sometimes wonder if I'd ever see you again or if you had just disappeared into thin air...it was like a dream, a great dream but I kept expecting to wake up and find myself back in the real world. This," she waved a hand, gesturing to the house they now lived in, their refuge against the world in Washington D.C, "All that's happened, what we've gone through...all this crap and what we have now, good and bad it feels real- like we have a future, with a white picket fence and two and a half kids"

"How do we have half a child?" He teased and she shrugged going along with the levity,

"I don't know but I want one" she waited a moment before leaning up to kiss him,

"I love you"

He smiled, "I love you too"

* * *

In the bright glare of the early morning, Agent Paula Cassidy had to squint to make out the image before her. The bloodied corpses of two Marine's in a trash-littered, urine scented alleyway.

Somehow, large shards of mirror and pools of some fluid were scattered throughout the dingy small area and the reflection of the sun hurt her eyes. Digging into her jacket she waited until her sunglasses were firmly affixed before carefully making her way to Tony,

"What have we got?" she asked, looking down at the notebook in his hands where he sketched the outlay of the two men.

"Corporal Damon Werth and Corporal Chad Dunham, both on leave, their bodies were discovered by a civilian walking his dog" he reported dutifully before stealing a glance at her, "You're late...Gibbs is waiting for you inside"

Paula opened her mouth to protest, to point out that the reason she was late was because she had waited up until two in the morning for him to come over, or heck even call, hoping that they would be able to talk about his sudden reinforcement of rule twelve and how he had ended it without even talking to her.

He didn't give her the chance, returning to his work and leaving her standing there like a fool. Cursing him in her mind, she spun on her heel and stomped into the building, whipping off her sunglasses to accommodate to the sudden darkness. She saw Gibbs standing by the bar, talking to the bartender and hurried over to meet him, holding out the pictures she'd had the good sense to print out when she'd arrived at the office ten minutes too late.

"Yeah I remember them" the bartender began, "It was a quiet night last night, but they hooked up with some out of towners and got into a drinking game" he tapped the picture of Corporal Damon Werth, "Your Marines lost"

"Can you describe the people they were with?"

"Uh...one arrived with them, looked a lot like Chad here but no uniform, the other two were already here, a man and a woman, dark, foreign accents, spoke another language and drank heavy, tequila shots and then moved on to vodka, I think the guy left with another woman, I don't know when the woman left, they paid in cash" he added the last part apologetically and Paula mentally swore, cash was the hardest thing to trace in small amounts.

She looked to her boss to find he had gone incredibly still. To an unfamiliar eye there wasn't much difference, but unless staring someone down in interrogation, sitting at his desk or in transit, Gibbs was very rarely unmoving, with the amount of caffeine in his system, even at three in the morning the man walked with a spring in his step.

"Happen to catch the names of these 'out of towners'?" he asked quietly, and Paula saw him grip his pen when the man pondered the question,

"Yeah, the female was Z- something...Zeeba...Zeefer..."

"Ziva?" Gibbs supplied and the man nodded enthusiastically as Gibbs snapped his biro in half.

With a muttered thanks to the man, Paula hastened to follow her team leader as he stormed from the building, out the front door onto International Drive, pulling off his cap and ruffling his hair,

"Something wrong Gibbs?" she knew the question was an understatement but demands never got far with the Marine,

"Ziva David, Mossad operative" Gibbs announced raising his arm to point west, "Lives about five minutes that way with Ari Haswari and...Kate"

Paula managed to muffle her sound of surprise but just barely, she had been in Gitmo at the time of what NCIS scuttlebutt disgustingly called the 'Mossad invasion of NCIS' although never with a member of the MCRT in earshot, but word had spread quickly and the rumour mill had gone into overdrive when Caitlin Todd had returned to Washington with her boyfriend and his sister in tow.

And now it appeared that those three-diplomatically protected Israeli agents- may have been the last to see the murdered Marines alive.

Oh this case was going to get complicated.

Gibbs seemed to be waging an inner war; one Paula could almost see the result of before he even opened his mouth,

"Alright" he sighed, "Take DiNozzo, go question them"


	18. Chapter 18

A/N- Read a review today praising NCIS:LA for staying a thrilling drama while NCIS was quickly devolving into comedy with bodies- um...NCIS has pretty much always been a comedy with bodies, case in point season 1 episode 1 Yankee White when they stick Tony in the body bag and he's tossed out the car by the FBI- although I do think they need to say something to the writers in regard to Tony's character because sometimes he's descending so far into idiocy its painful to watch, at least in season one they contrasted it with his great undercover ability but season eight is pretty much just annoying especially considering the Ziva having a secret boyfriend story arc was done two seasons ago.

And thats my rant.

* * *

When Ziva David opened her eyes, she immediately regretted it and slammed them shut again, moaning at the bright light that surrounded her. She passed out and the next time she awoke her Mossad survival instincts kicked in. First she focused on her auditory senses, learning about her surroundings from what she could hear- birds singing, leaves rustling, the faintest sound of traffic to the west, then she focused on what she could feel- dirt, twigs and leaves underneath her. Slowly, not perceiving any immediate threat, she opened her eyes and raised her head.

She was lying on a small hill in the middle of a forest. Frowning she moistened her mouth, licked her lips and shaded her eyes from the bright sun, trying to get her bearings. The handbag she'd carried last night was gone; when she shifted herself she felt an empty space where the knife she kept holstered to her hip should be but her two guns were still in place.

Was she attacked?

Had she needed to defend herself last night?

Pulling herself into a sitting position, crossing her legs and looking down at her lap, she pulled out her two guns and checked her ammo dread coursing through her veins when she saw that both weapons were empty of bullets.

What frightened her most though was that she could see that her weaponry hadn't been fired, which meant someone had been close enough to remove the bullets from her two guns without her knowledge.

Patting herself down she couldn't feel any injuries, she checked under her fingernails and saw that they were remarkably clean, no evidence of her having scratched someone or been in contact with another person. There were no visible defensive wounds, in fact she seemed unharmed.

Except for the fact that her head was pounding from the alcohol she had dim memories of drinking last night.

Ari!

Kate!

Where were they?

She took deep breaths to try and calm her panic, she could vaguely recall her brother and friend had left before her, they'd been wrapped up in one another but both of them had likely been armed.

Then again so had she.

She looked up at the sun to try and get her bearings, looking at the light and its position in the sky. She was used to the desert environment of Israel but the sun was still the sun and could tell her that it was roughly midmorning and that she was facing south.

Her guns were virtually useless now; Ziva dug a small hole with her hands and buried her first gun, keeping her back-up only because the commander of her battalion in the IDF had bought it for her as a graduation gift.

Standing up she looked around her, her sight blurry and her head feeling heavy and foggy. Her body asked if she might not want to lie down and sleep for a few more hours but her brain tried its best to keep itself sharp, pointing out that her and possibly her brother and future sister-in-law were in danger.

Quietly she moved through the forest, her every step careful and her every breath as quiet as possible, she didn't want to attract any threat, human or animal with only a knife to protect her. By her count it took her almost two hours to finally reach the quiet stretch of road, ducking under the barriers and studying both sides to see any markers that would point her to Washington. She could make out a city skyline in the distance, but that did not mean it was the right city. Exhaling through her nose she flagged down a passing car, seeing a lone man inside and judging him to be her best bet, he slowly braked a few dozen metres ahead of her and she jogged to the car, noting even as she approached the boot that he had locked all the doors and was tense. The roughly thirty year old Caucasian man rolled down the window only as much as necessary,

"Are you alright ma'm?" he asked in a stilted voice and she bent down to meet his eye level,

"Can you tell me which way it is to Washington D.C?" she asked, trying to keep her tone polite even as she struggled to remember the correct English words,

"Are you in trouble?" he inquired, his demeanour softening slightly and holding up his mobile phone,

"Would you like to call an ambulance or the police?"

Ziva was strongly tempted by the suggestion, but she shook her head, both of those options would require her becoming visible and being held in one place long enough for whatever threat she was facing to find her again. She could call her brother, Kate or Hadar but if they were in danger also, then best not to alert anyone that she was awake and looking for them.

"No thank-you" she decided, "Could you just point me in the right direction?"

The man hesitated, "Uh...I'm headed that way...it's about an hour's drive from here...do you want a lift?"

The driver seemed visibly uncomfortable with the chance that she might say yes, clearly weighing the possible danger with his desire to help. Taking pity on him she shook her head,

"No I will be fine"

She was also torn between accepting his ride and walking. On the one hand, it would get her out of the open and into Washington faster; on the other hand there was no guaranteeing that this man was not part of the threat that had landed her in the middle of a forest.

Of course by that reckoning he could be pointing her in the wrong direction but she couldn't spend the entire day waiting for another car to come along and check with them.

'_Have some faith' _Caitlin's voice whispered in her ear and farewelling the man again, she set off, climbing back over the barriers and jogging along close to the forest line in case she suddenly needed to shelter herself. The car disappeared quickly and she tried to take comfort in the lack of other cars and the perceived lack of other threats. Unfortunately ten minutes after she'd set out she had to stop and vomit into the dirt, the blurry sight, alcohol and subsequent hangover combining to make her feel ill. She stayed still for a moment before setting off at a slower pace, thankful she was wearing her combat boots and not the heels Kate had insisted on buying for her.

Two hours, one bridge over water and two bouts of vomiting later, Ziva was relieved to see her path merged onto a busier road with clear land on both sides that she could cut across, striding across the field, she saw the Vietnam memorial, deserted due to the cold temperature and silently thanked the man who had been kind enough to give her the correct directions. From there she was able to pick up a tourist map of Washington that someone had left on the ground and slowly navigate her way through quiet suburban streets, doing her best to hide every time she saw a person approaching, until she finally reached Veazey Street. Relieved, she leant against the low brick fence of one of the neighbour's properties and struggled to remain conscious, every part of her ached, her mouth tasted disgusting and she wanted nothing more than to surrender to the blackness that was encroaching in the corner of her eyes. But her brother and sister could be in danger,

Ari and Tali could be in danger.

Wait _Tali?_...no Tali was dead, her sister...her sister with the hard to pronounce name- Kate that was it! Kate might be in danger.

Staggering across the road, nearly colliding with a car that honked its horn and veered onto the sidewalk to avoid her, she eased through the numerous cars parked out the front of her home, she could see the sirens inside them; they were police cars, which meant there was no threat inside at least.

The door was open and she slid inside, her vision doubling and swirling, she moaned and pressed her fingers to her head, all activity in the house ceasing and focusing on her,

"Ziva" she heard her brother call and smiled numbly, her brother was safe, she gasped as he took her by the arms and squeezed, "Where have you been?"

She shrugged, "Sleeping...in a forest, I think"

She began to close her eyes when Kate appeared beside her brother, "Ziva" she cried, her voice loud and panicked, "You're covered in blood"

Surprised, Ziva managed to force herself to look down and realised that her top and pants were indeed soaked in dried blood, "Oh" she pouted unhappily, "I did not notice"

Then everything went quiet and dark.

* * *

Standing in the hospital room, Kate wondered idly if it was possible for a war to be started on account of one woman. Then she recalled the numerous times in history where, indeed, nations had gone to war over a woman.

This morning when Kate and Ari had been woken in their bed, which they'd crawled into round about midnight, to find Tony and Agent Cassidy at the door to ask questions about a murder, Kate's only concern had been that prejudice against her boyfriend could hinder the case. Then Tony had received the call that security footage had shown Ziva leaving shortly after the two men and asked to speak to her. Only problem was she hadn't come home last night.

From there things had gone from bad to worse.

Amit Hadar had somehow got wind of the investigation and arrived claiming that this was a matter that concerned the Mossad and Israeli embassy. The FBI had arrived to argue that international suspect trumped two dead Marines and just as the CIA were arriving, Ziva had stumbled into the house, disorientated and covered in blood that Kate would bet her life belonged to the two dead sailors.

Then she had fainted and fallen back into the arms of Gibbs and McGee who had nearly run her over in the street,

"This would be Ziva David?" Gibbs asked, catching the unconscious woman,

"Mossad Officer David" Amit pointed out, hurrying towards them, "Who is protected by diplomatic immunity"

"And may have committed a crime on American soil" Fornell argued, pushing past Kate to get to her friend,

"And is a person of interest to the CIA" Kort added, trying to move Ari aside to lay a hand on Ziva, which clearly didn't go down well with him.

"Enough!" he ordered, in a voice that brooked no argument, "My sister is in need of medical attention, I am taking her to the hospital and you can all either get out of my way or be shot with my gun...your choice gentlemen"

With that he reached over, snatched Ziva from Gibbs arms and carried her from the house, Kate lingered only long enough to see a flash or surprise and possibly hurt run over her former bosses face before hurrying after her fiancé.

And now they were at St Mary's hospital where she and Ari had taken up guard by Ziva's bedside as the mother of all jurisdiction battles took place two corridors down- with hospital policy and Ari's connections alone stopping the men from coming in and physically making a grab for Ziva.

As it was they had only requested Ziva not be allowed to leave the hospital until they'd figured something out.

Kate figured that was an empty request as Ziva certainly wouldn't be getting up under her own steam any time soon.

The doctors had diagnosed her with dehydration, hypothermia- thanks to the freezing winter temperature outside, alcohol poisoning and they'd found traces of rohypnol in her system. Thankfully the rape kit had turned up negative but Ari was steadfastly refusing to leave his sisters side, barely even answering her when she whispered words of comfort to him.

Kate looked up as someone knocked on the door and saw Tony and Gibbs enter the room, intruding on the temporary sanctuary she and Ari had found.

"We brought coffee" Tony announced over the ensuing awkward silence and when Ari didn't move from his position, Kate came forward and helped him place the cups on Ziva's table,

"Thanks" she whispered tiredly, avoiding Gibbs eyes, not looking forward to her first confrontation with the man after so many years,

"So..." she began, "Who's winning the argument?"

Tony didn't answer, he went to stand by Ziva's bedside and stare down at the unconscious woman, inadvertently leaving Kate to face Gibbs who fixed his eyes on her shoulder as he spoke,

"The Directors have taken over the argument. CIA, FBI, us and Mossad" he explained quietly,

"It's complicated but right now the two main issues are two dead Marines and Ziva's diplomatic immunity, I don't know what the FBI or CIA are going to claim but I doubt they can trump that"

"Is Director Adir or Deputy- Director David handling the issue?" Ari asked suddenly, speaking for the first time since leaving the house, his voice sounding hoarse, he looked up to meet Gibbs gaze,

"Adir" Gibbs answered point blank, frowning as Ari and Kate winced, "Problem?"

"He hates us" Kate responded simply, "Pretty much on the same level as the FBI hates you"

The moment the words were out of her mouth she regretted them, she hadn't meant to say something that could be construed as an insult, once upon a time it would have been a statement of fact in the bullpen and she had fallen into the old habit without realising. Thankfully Gibbs seemed to understand and gave the smallest smirk before walking over to Haswari,

"Can I talk to you?" he asked but Ari didn't move,

"Talk" he demanded, his hand on the railing of his sister's bed,

"Outside" Gibbs elaborated but once again Ari didn't budge.

Sighing, Kate grabbed her coffee cup and moved over to Ari, placing her hand atop his and leaning up to whisper in his ear,

"It is okay" she promised in Arabic, "I will protect her"

Finally her fiancé nodded and followed Gibbs from the room, leaving Tony and Kate facing each other over the bed, Tony grinned nervously,

"Don't think they'll try to kill each other do you?" he joked and Kate smirked,

"Maybe they're gonna form a temporary alliance and take out the agents downstairs?"

"Oh that would be awesome to see...it would be like the Terminator mixed with a little..."

Tony's rant was silenced as Ziva moaned in her sleep, turning her head towards the sound of his voice, he stilled and looked down at her- an unreadable expression on his usually open face,

"She's so young" he pointed out to Kate and she shrugged, "Twenty-six next year but more skilled then many twice her age, she's been fighting since she was seventeen..."

"When her sister died" Tony finished for her, leaving Kate to freeze in shock,

"That's right, how did you kn...oh!"

Ziva's pop-culture reference made sense to her then, especially when Tony tenderly tucked one of her stray curls behind her ears, a move which seemed foreign on her former work partner. She remembered the numerous times she'd seen him flirt with numerous women, the way she had teased him for staying out too late and not remembering their names- now though...she hoped Tony wasn't planning on playing Ziva because she did not want to see what her future sister-in-law did when she had a broken heart.

Or the rest of the David family for that matter.

She was about to voice this warning to Tony when they were distracted by a McGee bursting into the room, he looked around wildly then stopped and smiled nervously,  
"Uh...hey Kate long time no see, uh Tony...is Gibbs around?"

"What's wrong Tim?" Kate asked, running her eyes over his anxious features, stepping away from the bed when he began to back towards the door, "Um...I should really speak to..."

"Out with it probie" Tony snapped, appearing at Kate's side, reminding her of when they used to gang up on the poor man, "What's happened?"

Tim swallowed nervously, "We found the murder weapon...it's a Mossad standard issue knife with Ziva's prints all over it and coupled with the bartender seeing her with the victims last night...I'm sorry Kate but I have a warrant for her arrest"

* * *

A/N- Reviews my precious tell me what you think about where this chapter went, and if the clues I gave over the last few chapters were enough.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N- This chapter is dedicated to zivadavid03 whose review made me feel guilty enough to write two thousand words in one go.

* * *

Kate blinked in shock at McGee's statement,

"You can't arrest Ziva" she pointed out to the younger agent, "She has diplomatic immunity- we all do, at the most you can order her to leave the country"

McGee swallowed nervously, and his eyes flickered to the bed,

"Actually...um... your Director- Mossad's surrendered her immunity"

Adir.

Of course he would take the opportunity to throw an agent to the wolves.

As if on cue the hospital phone beside Ziva's bed began ringing and Kate turned her back on her two former work partners, grateful for the distraction.

"Hello?" she asked, feeling a sense of relief when she heard the familiar voice moments later,

"That no good..." Eli David began before launching into a loud litany of swear words that Kate would expect from the mouth of an Irish wharfie. He even switched languages when he ran out of Hebrew curses. Holding the phone a centimetre from her ear, she patiently waited until his rage subsided slightly before venturing to speak to him,

"What should we do?" she asked, cutting straight to the point, nursing the irrational fear that federal agents would burst through the hospital doors at any second and drag her unconscious friend away.

Over the line she heard Eli sigh with obvious exhaustion, "I have not seen the evidence myself but I am sending lawyers to make sure you three are aware of Ziva's rights- until then..." he paused,

"Which federal agency should my daughter surrender herself to?"

Kate knew the answer before she even pondered the question. The result of a loyalty that still resided deep within her but practicality filtered in as well.

Jenny Sheppard wanted the Israeli's support for something, she would be the least likely to see a potential weapon in her arsenal locked up for twenty-five to life.

Tony had a relationship with the woman so he would do his best to prove her innocent.

Gibbs seemed to be doing his best to view the situation with a rational non-biased eye and out of all the players looked to be the only one trying to stay out of the political two-step.

After nearly five years it looked like Kate Todd was going back to NCIS.

* * *

Taking a deep breath she faced Tony and Tim, both watching her with concerned eyes but ready for her response to the situation at hand.

"I'll make sure Ziva voluntarily surrenders to NCIS and answers any and all questions, but she's not leaving this hospital until the doctors say she's ready, you can search our home once you get the warrant but I doubt you'll find anything there. We have lawyers on the way but I'll do my best to make sure they don't screw up the case too badly"

The nodded and Tim looked so apologetic that Kate knew what he was going to say even before he opened his mouth so she held up a hand,

"Rule number six McGee"

He gave her an eager nod and turned to leave but at that moment Ari came back into the room and nearly collided with the young man whom stuttered nervously and tried to dodge around him only to be further intimidated when he didn't move.

Kate rolled her eyes and took pity on the man, "Ari get over here!"

Without a word he nimbly stepped left, allowing McGee to make his escape and strode over to her, resting a hand on her back, "What has happened?" he asked quietly, and she filled him in on the details shocked when he only nodded and offered none of the objections or outbursts that she had expected.

"It will be at least another twenty-four hours before she can safely be released" he warned her and she shrugged,

"I'll get us some more coffee then"

* * *

The last time Ari Haswari had set foot in the NCIS he had been shot by Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Kate noticed him rubbing his shoulder blade, rotating it to try and ease the pain. She knew that he had various injuries that hurt in the cold, but today this one seemed to be psychological more than physical. She was unsure of what to say so settled for keeping her eyes on the road as she navigated the car they were in through the Navy Yard, sliding neatly into a park just outside NCIS and killing the engine.

"Hey" she called as he made no movement to get out of the car, "Are you okay?"

He frowned as if only just noticing she was there, "Ziva is being framed" he murmured and she nodded, "I know and I think Gibbs knows as well"

"But there is no proof" he continued, looking out the passenger window, away from her, "And I do not know how to find it"

"You don't have to" she pointed out, reaching over to touch his shoulder, feeling a stab of hurt when he winced and pulled away, "Hey Gibbs and his people are the best, they will find whoever did this- set Ziva free and we'll all be fine, I love you"

She added the last part as an afterthought, a way of trying to make the man she cared so deeply about feel better. It seemed to work, he gave her a smile and leaned across the space to pull her into a kiss, their lips fusing and their tongues meeting, their hands caressing each other's face, when they stopped he pressed his lips to her temple,

"Marry me" he whispered in her ear and she smirked,

"Get out of the car" she ordered smiling.

* * *

The air in the observation room was so tense McGee reckoned a knife wouldn't cut it, heck a chainsaw might have a difficult time of it.

The technicians ran the regular checks while Tony stood in front of the glass, his eyes never leaving the woman on the other side.

Mossad Officer Ziva David.

When she'd been discharged from the hospital NCIS protocol had demanded that she be handcuffed and escorted to the Navy Yard with the MCRT. Due to a traffic accident they were late getting there and Kate had rung Tony to volunteer driving Ziva to NCIS, seeing as she and Haswari were going to head there anyway. Strangely enough Gibbs hadn't been that concerned with the idea, it had been Paula and McGee who'd had to shoot it down, pointing out that once in the car there was no way to stop them from high-tailing it to the Israeli embassy which was immune from American law-enforcement even if Ziva David no longer was.

It had been Practicality 101 that had led them to speak up but somehow Tony had taken offence and was giving them both the silent treatment.

McGee swallowed nervously and stepped up to the window watching the exotic woman as she slowly made her way around the room, looking to the camera, the door, the walls. He wondered if she was planning her escape route, doubtful though considering she was still pale and swayed uncertainly on her feet. She shuffled back to the table and sank into her chair only seconds before Gibbs strode into the room, a file in one hand and plastic cup in the other.

"Sit" he ordered as she placed her hands on the table and began to rise from her chair, he dropped the cup onto the table and pushed it over to her, "Drink if you're thirsty"

With a wan smile, Ziva David pulled the cup to her and studied the contents, "In Mossad if a suspect was handed a clear liquid there would be truth serum in it"

Gibbs shook his head, "Not legal here"

She shrugged, "And possibly not legal in Israel...I have never checked"

Taking a small sip of the water she gave a pointed look to the file in Gibbs hands, "Questions?"

McGee saw Gibbs shoulders rise and fall in what looked like a sigh but he couldn't be sure- all he knew was this was unlikely to be like any of the interrogations he had seen before.

"What do you recall?" he asked and she frowned,

"Not much" she admitted, "I got home at approximately six-oh-seven when Ari pushed me out the door and told me we were going drinking..."

"This a regular occurrence?" Gibbs interrupted, flipping open the file to take notes, McGee saw her give a small shrug, "In Israel we only drink heavily on weekends when we are not required to work and we have not gone out much since...Khan Yunis" she looked up to see if the event required further explanation but Gibbs gave her a quick shake of the head and she looked relieved,

"However as we entered the bar Ari told me that he had received a call from Kate's mother and that your forensic scientist, the one who was with Jenny at the airport had been talking to the Todd family about him..."

"Abby?" Gibbs queried looking surprised, out of the corner of his eye McGee saw Tony glance at him with the question in his eye, "You knew about this?" he demanded but Tim stuttered over a refusal,

"No she didn't tell me...I swear"

"Yes" Ziva murmured bringing the agents attention back to the interrogation, "in light of this Ari and I decided some alcohol was in order"

"You two always drink to solve your problems?" Gibbs questioned but instead of looking guilty she just shrugged, "There are not many other coping mechanics open to us, the occasional heavy drinking is the healthiest"

"Mechanisms" Tony and Gibbs said in unison although Ziva could only hear one of them,

"What?"

"Its coping mechanisms"

"Oh"

"What time did you meet Corporal Werth and Dunham?" he asked and McGee saw that she leant back in her chair, musing over the question, "I think it was about an hour after we were in the bar, they came over and invited us into a drinking competition, some woman had apparently bet them that two Marines couldn't outdrink two civilians, especially when one of them was a female"

McGee looked to his left as Tony and Gibbs somehow managed to start and tense at the same time,

"You see this woman?" Gibbs asked but Ziva David just shook her head,

"No, I was not interested, anyhow we spent a half hour talking and drinking with the men, at which point Kate arrived and Ari left, this was around eight and I had another few shots...I do not recall anything after that"

Gibbs sighed again and drew the head shots of the two murdered men from the file flipping them round and sliding them across the table to her,

"You remember attacking the two men? Your knife was found at the scene, covered in your prints and their blood"

McGee was surprised by the lack of emotion the exotic woman showed as she stared at the two pictures, "No...but the doctors found rohypnol in my system yes? Perhaps the men tried to rape me and I killed them"

"With your knife?" Gibbs pointed out and the woman shook her head,

"I am aware it does not make sense, I do not understand why I simply did not shoot them, and certainly it would have been easier but when I woke up this morning both my guns had been emptied of bullets but not fired"

Gibbs shook his head, "You're right, that doesn't make se..."

The door to the interrogation room flew open and everyone jumped, Paula stuck her head in and glanced at Gibbs,

"We've found something" she announced without preamble, "And you might want to take a look"

With an incredulous stare at one another, Tony and McGee darted out of the observation room as Gibbs stormed into the hallway, "Agent Cassidy what's my rule about interrogation?"

She didn't even flinch, "We have proof that Officer David was handled after she lost consciousness"

Gibbs blinked in surprise, "We?"

She began leading the way to the elevators, "Well...Officer Todd and Haswari mentioned that Ziva woke up in the middle of a forest and judging by what she had told them they figured that it was the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park, so they got me to check the CCTV footage- which was terrible but it's down in the lab being cleaned up as we speak"

* * *

Kate looked up as Gibbs stormed into the lab and looked around for his favourite scientist,

"Where's Abby?"

Kate swallowed and readjusted her position leaning against the table that held the Mass spectrometer, inching closer to her boyfriend who mimicked her position,

"Uh...I think she went out for Caff-Pow!"

That statement was uttered by Chip, the twitchy lab assistant who had nearly fainted earlier when Ari had decided to relieve some of his tension by repeatedly throwing his dagger into the air and then cleaning his vast assortment of guns while the young man tried to clean up the grainy footage they had brought him.

This statement was doubted by Gibbs who stared at his three agents for verification, receiving only shrugs in return, "She didn't tell us she was leaving boss"

Huffing with annoyance, the boss marched to the television screen as the computer beeped,

"Bring it up" he ordered and Chip scuttled to the computer, typing frantically.

When it started to play Ari got up and moved to stand next to Gibbs, both men watching the picture entranced, from the stunned looks on the faces around her Kate clearly wasn't the only one surprised by the sudden appearance of a detente between the two.

"There!" Gibbs pointed out as a large minivan wove through the memorial park, the time stamp reading just before nine thirty, "Twenty minutes after the Marines T.O.D"

"Can you get a clearer picture?" Ari asked Chip who shook his head, "No but if I pause and zoom in, then adjust the resolution...there" he announced triumphantly, the video freezing on the logo on the side of the van,

"Is that a crucifix?" Tony asked bewildered, "Ziva David was kidnapped by happy clappers?"

"Tony that's the symbol for the Church of Thomas the Apostle!" McGee exclaimed and when he was met with blank looks continued, "That's where the nuns Abby bowls with live...that's their van I drove them to a tournament once!"

Kate got a sick feeling in her stomach, a mixture of dread and fear. She wanted to call out to Chip to delete the video but the assistant was already playing it again, following the footage from camera to camera until they reached the side of the road where the van pulled over and a person dragged an unconscious Ziva from the car. He stopped and zoomed in once again but Kate was already staggering out the door when he cleared the picture just enough to make out a five foot nine woman with dark hair and pigtails.

"Agent Gibbs" she heard him cry as the tears started to run down her cheeks,

"That's Abby!"

* * *

A/N Read and review please


	20. Chapter 20

A/N- I am sorry for the long delay, uni life is hectic.

P.S I wrote the second part when I was drunk and the third and fourth part when I was hungover so sorry for any discrepancies.

* * *

Ziva had only intended to rest her head on the table for a moment- but when she opened her eyes at the gentlest touch of a hand against her hair, she looked up and realised she must have slept longer than she had thought.

Two green eyes met hers and she could almost feel the suffering in them.

"You're being released" he told her gently, "Kate and...your brother are waiting for you"

With a stifled sigh Ziva slowly got to her feet, "I have been cleaned of all charges?" she asked as he placed his hand on her upper arm and began manoeuvring her to the door,

"Cleared" he corrected automatically and she nodded as they reached the hallway,

"Yes...so I have been?"

He became so tense that his fingers dug into her arm and she stopped looking up at him,

"Tony" she whispered as quietly as she could, checking the hall to make sure they weren't being watched, "What has happened?"

When he looked at her his face was so murderous that she blinked, "You were set up" he spat,

"We think the bastard was the original target but when he left with Kate you were framed instead, now we have two dead Marines and half the agencies in turmoil"

It took her a moment to process this information because her brain had shut down and reverted to the cold analytical mind of a Mossad officer two seconds in,

When Tony had called her half-brother, her Ari- the boy who had taught her how to ride a bike, the man who'd let her move in with him in Scotland after Tali's death, her best friend and other half- a _bastard_.

With a quick twist she broke his hold on him, "Your agencies incompetence is not my concern" she told him in as cruel a voice as she could manage before striding down the hall, telling herself with every breath that she would not collapse from the strain.

Near total recall aided her in reaching the squad room where she nearly ran into Agent Cassidy as she swung around the cubicle wall,

"Sorry" she blurted as she stuck out an arm to steady her,

"Whoa it's fine- are you okay?" Cassidy asked, concern in the blonde woman's eyes as she sat her down at her own desk, handing her a bottle of water.

"I will be fine once I am out of here" she responds, trying to avoid the woman's eyes, not wanting to be shown concern by Tony's ex-girlfriend, or current girlfriend, for all Ziva knew he may have lied when he'd told her that he'd broken up with Paula, she hadn't asked him to make that commitment, he'd made it all by himself.

Two hours ago she would not have doubted him- but he had called her brother a _bastard._

He wasn't the first, nor would he be the last, but those closest to her and Ari had never used that term as an insult, a tease maybe but never a cruel one.

She felt his presence nearby and looked up to the MTAC gallery to see him stepping out and heading along the railing to the stairs, moving quickly but clearly distracted. Kate was at the bottom of the stair speaking to Agent Gibbs, Ziva could see that she was upset and inhaled, deeply willing strength into her body before attempting to get up.

"Whoa, easy there" Paula put her hands on her shoulders and tried to push her back down but Ziva shook her off,

"My sister needs me" she whispered as explanation, taking small steps to be certain that she would not collapse and making a line for where Kate stood.

Ari realised her intentions first and touched his fiance's arm as he strode past, catching her attention she issued a quick apology to Gibbs and hurried to Ziva's side reaching it the same time as he did.

Both of them took Ziva's arms, forming a triangle as they huddled as close to one another as they could, closing ranks against the world that wanted to destroy them, ignoring anyone who might be watching.

Strangely Ziva craved her brother's embrace, she wanted Ari to gather her and Kate in his arms and hug them as if they were small children in need of comfort but she knew such an act of vulnerability would be dangerous just then, surrounded as they were on all sides. Instead she stepped closer, until her breath mingled with theirs,

"I have been released" she whispered and Kate nodded, her tears still drying on her cheeks,

"You were framed, there is footage of a woman dragging you into the park..."

"They think it is Abigail Scuito" Ari finished for her, "The forensic scientist," he reminded her and Ziva nodded,

"As long as I am free I do not care"

Kate sniffed and Ziva saw she had upset her, "Abby was once my best friend" she murmured in a small voice and the Israeli woman felt a stab of jealousy.

"Perhaps in future you should choose more trustworthy friends" she sniped, but her future sister-in-law was so distracted by everything that had happened today that she didn't even register the taunt,

"Perhaps I should" she admitted,

* * *

She'd disembarked at Louis Armstrong before the security had grabbed her.

One minute she'd been chatting to the old lady next to her, the next she'd been tackled onto the tarmac and set upon by three burly guards who'd dragged her kicking and shouting to a room and locked her in there.

She'd pounded on the door in panic for five minutes before they'd ordered her to shut up and warned that the feds would be there within the hour.

They were there in an hour and a half.

Abby had been expecting Agent Fornell or some other agency- so when the door opened and she saw her silver haired fox she felt a mixture of relief and confusion, scuttling across the room on her high heels she threw her arms around her boss in a quick, affectionate hug,

"What's going on Gibbs?" she demanded, "First I'm jumped by Boris, Boris and Boris and then I'm shut up in this little closet and told that I'm under arrest or some-"

When she had jumped him he'd automatically wrapped his arms about her waist in but now he removed them and tried to be as professional as possible "Sit down Abby"

She blinked and stood back at his order, surprised by his harsh tone "Why what's happened?"

He sighed and sat down at the table, feeling twenty years older than he had when he'd been forced to interrogate Ziva David despite his gut screaming that she'd been innocent.

His gut was silent now.

He looked up as Abby sat down, her face clear of any guilt or telltale signs,

"Has something happened? Has that Ziva chick been convicted or something? Why am I here Gibbs, my mother is sic-..."

"I called your mother Abby" Gibbs interrupted, "When I first realised you were gone and McGee tracked your passport to this airport I rang your family to make sure there hadn't been any accidents"

Abby frowned, "But I received a text message from my brother saying that Gloria had been hospitalised"

"Then why is the final destination on your ticket an airport in Switzerland?"

Her confusion only intensified and seeing this, Gibbs opened his folder and slid a piece of paper across to her which held information both familiar and strange.

She saw the numbers and letters which signified the flight she had booked and the plane she had been on, but beneath that was another flight to an airport she had never heard of to a country she had no intention of going to.

"I...this is a mistake Gibbs" she pushed the paper back to him, "Why the heck would I go to Switzerland...you know unless I was going to the History of Science museum in Geneva- which I've heard is awesome but it's like tenth on my list of places to go, right after Australia and before Amsterdam..."

"Abby we found video footage of Officer David being dragged into the Roosevelt Memorial park... there was a camera right over where the van stopped...it was meant to be out of commission but the techs in charge had forgot to shut it off"

Abby nodded, waiting for the penny to drop and for Gibbs sudden change in behaviour to make sense, which it did a second later,

"Once we cleared it up, it showed us a woman driving a van. The van belongs to the nuns you bowl with and the woman matches your description"

"No..." Abby shook her head but Gibbs just kept staring at her, "No...Gibbs I would never...!"

"You hate Haswari- that much is clear, you rang Kate's family to bitch about him..."

"I was _warning_ them..."

"You are perfectly capable of pulling this off- give me one reason why I should believe you didn't do it!"

"Because you know me!" she shouted, "You _know_ me Gibbs, you know everything there is to know about me- you love me and I'm like a daughter to you, how can you not trust me over...what _they_ did to you"

"What they did was wrong Abby" he allowed, "But the damage they did is nowhere near as bad or as damaging as what you did"

This was a nightmare, any minute now Abby would wake up and be in her coffin, or on the plane next to the nice elderly woman. This was only a nightmare.

Gibbs sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Abby...I'm gonna have to place you under arrest for suspicion of murder and intent to..."

The shrill ringing of his mobile phone cut through the deafening roar in her ears.

* * *

"Okay, thank-you"

McGee hung up the phone and left his desk, walking across the squad room to the break area where, for the last two or so hours Kate and the two Mossad Officers David and Haswari had been waiting. Technically they were free to go but when Paula had pointed this out to Kate she had shaken her head and said that she wanted to wait for the outcome- and for some reason this meant that Ziva David and Ari had to stay as well, despite the fact that as the day wore on all three of them were clearly showing signs of exhaustion but none more so than Ziva who was still showing the wear and tear of her drugging and sojourn in the bushland.

McGee tried not to think about that though, because then he would have to think about how the current suspect was...

"McGee"

"Innocent!" he shouted automatically, startling the three people in the break room who were now looking at him strangely,

"What is he innocent of?" Officer David asked but the other two just shrugged clearly uninterested and McGee blushed,

"Um...Chip has volunteered to drive you home" he told Officer David but she shook her head,

"I am fine"

McGee looked to Kate as she chuckled and then spoke in what Tim assumed to be Hebrew, speaking with a confidence that he could never manage in a secondary language, whatever she said elicited laughs from the two others and she flashed a smile at Tim who tried to return it even as he felt an odd shiver down his spine at the ease with which Kate associated with the two killers. A concern clearly matched by another NCIS agent in the room who looked up from her plastic gloved hands and skittered out.

When Kate had finished speaking, Officer David slowly got to her feet, Ari getting up and placing a hand on her upper arm to aid her, he walked her as far as the elevator before his phone rang and he stood back, leaving Kate and McGee to watch over the still recovering Israeli. An act more difficult than it looked because as soon as the elevator doors closed on them, the sudden jerk caused the woman to fall against him, sending him careening into the wall.

Kate gave a loud gasp, a strangely feminine sound Tim had never heard from her before.

"Dammit, Ziva are you okay?"

Looking as fragile as a broken bird, the young woman fought to steady herself and looked up at the probationary agent, "Sorry" she whispered, "I guess I am just tired",

If McGee wasn't absolutely, without-a-doubt, one-hundred-percent certain that Tony had likely already offered her a 'tour of NCIS' he might have worked up the courage to offer to buy her a coffee.

He quashed that thought a moment later when he recalled the little detail that this woman was the half-sister of a dangerous psychopath, although he liked to think that Kate had once liked him enough to put in a good word for him when her boyfriend starting the keel-hauling process.

Moving carefully, the three of them made it out of the elevator and through the garage where Chip had left the car idling. Tim went to open the back door but before he could there was a subtle throat clearing and he turned to see Kate surreptitiously shake her head at him.

Concerned now, he stopped to raise objections- or to ask what was going on, but somehow, displaying more energy in five seconds than she had shown for the last day, Officer David managed to scoot around the car and slip into the front passenger seat.

"I'll be back soon" he calls out the driver's window to no-one in particular, McGee barely remembered to wave and was spinning around to face Kate as the car sped off.

"What's going on?" he demanded but she simply turned on her heel,

"Come on!" she called striding across the concrete floor and darting into the stairwell before he could catch up,

"Where are we even going?"

* * *

"What's he doing in here?" McGee demanded as he and Kate entered the lab only to find Haswari at the computer, Tim didn't even need to be facing him to feel his smirk,

"Well...I was going to hang out in autopsy but for some reason my presence there unsettled the medical assistant Mr Palmer" he turned and McGee saw the challenging smile on his face,

"You don't mind do you?"

McGee opened his mouth to protest but Kate strode across the room and raised her chin in defiance, "Are you going to be a help or a bastard?" she asked and he smirked again, lowering his face until his forehead and nose were touching hers, the moment suddenly becoming so intimate that Tim blushed again, "Can't I be both?"

"Not if we wanna solve this case" she returned but didn't protest when he kissed her a moment later, giving McGee enough time to gather his nerve.

"No" he determined, stepping forward, breaking between the two of them and turning off the computer monitor, "No, you two aren't federal agents, you have connections to one of our former suspects and it would be completely unethical not to mention comprimising of the entire case if I were to let you two..."

Kate and Ari had shared a look during this rant and Ari sidestepped to the next computer while Kate moved around the near speechless McGee,

"Hey- what did I just say?"

Ari shrugged, "I don't think she was listening..."

Kate interrupted finishing the sentence "and his English is only good on the days that end in a Y"

There was a beep on the computer and they all looked at the screen, "What was that?" Tim asked and Ari started pressing the buttons on the board,

"I didn't feel the need to mention it at the time but the woman in the video footage dragging my sister through the woods is at least three inches taller than Abigail Scuito"

"Three inches?" Kate murmured, "You can tell that from the picture?"

He looked to her, "How good are you at math?"

She shrugged, "How good do you need me to be?"

Before McGee could worry that the conversation had veered into more intimate territory Haswari jerked his head at Kate, "Turn around and fall"

She obeyed, spinning and falling back into the man's arms without a second's hesitation, he caught her and smiled, looking over her relaxed form to Tim,

"You see the triangle between our legs Agent McGee, you see how its like elementary math, how knowing the height of one of the sides..."

"Can tell the distance of the other two" McGee finished eagerly and Haswari nodded,

"Abigail Scuito is five ft eight, my sister is five ft six, seven at the most. The woman in the picture would have to be at least six ft to carry Ziva the way she did"

"And as the woman in the video is wearing sneakers, we can tell its not Abby" Kate declared as Ari helped her back up. She looked at McGee and matched his grin, although clearly not sharing his joy and enthusiasm,

"But...that's great...why didn't you mention this earlier?"

"Good question" Kate allowed, turning to Ari, "Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

He raised his eyebrows, "Beloved, when you are looking for a human decoy for a potential target- what are the first things you ensure are identical"

She shrugged, "Colouring, height and physical distinctions of course"

"Three inches is a vast difference, a sniper with a well trained eye can tell the difference from a mile away, a street thug will notice if they are detached enough..."

"So why didn't the person framing Abby not see this?" McGee surmised and Haswari set his gaze on him, "Because that person likely saw Abigail Scuito as Mossad intel says she is everyday, in three inch high boots, eventually they would be so accustomed to the sight they would consider her to be six ft one"

McGee blinked in shock, "Wait, see her everyday? You think someone at NCIS did this?"

He had a sudden realisation and patted himself down, noting with dawning horror that his knife was missing, remembering when Ziva David had fallen against him in the elevator,

"You think Chip did this?"

They both nodded and he ripped out his cell phone to call Gibbs and alert him to the good news, he was on the third ring when a resounding bang reached them from outside.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N- I'm sorry for the delay my lovelies but here we go.

* * *

Jenny Sheppard had been on her way to visit Ducky when her high heeled shoe had kicked something clear across the corridor, chasing after it and holding it in her hand she had recognised it as one of the hair combs she had bought Ziva in Cairo all those years ago.

Logically it would be more dignified to wait until she ran into Officer Haswari or Todd and give it to them, but she had quickly realised that the girlish act of running after Ziva and combing it back into her hair for her might once more endear her to the woman and be of more help to her in the long run.

Hurrying down the stairwell in the hopes of getting her blood up, she paused before the door, pinched her cheeks to get some more colour into them and reached the busy parking lot of NCIS just as a loud bang reverberated through the area.

Instantly three agents jumped her, pushing her down and back into the building as she struggled to make sense of what was happening.

"Ziva" she shouted over their frenzied orders and demands as to her physical state,

"Officer David- where is she?"

Nobody had the answer to that question and if the agents hadn't been keeping a hold on her Jenny would have risked going outside- health and safety field policy be damned- to look for her.

Because Ziva dying on NCIS turf would be a massive blow for both the agency and Sheppard's career.

Not to mention Mossad would be irate.

Thankfully Haswari and Todd chose that moment to emerge from the stairwell at a dead run and rush right through the doors without a moment's hesitation or thought to their own safety. Agent McGee appeared a few seconds later with Doctor Mallard and Palmer,

"Anyone need medical assistance?" Palmer called above the din of the dozens of agents and NCIS employees gathering in the hallway, they all declined and he wandered over to the automatic doors where the faintest breeze was sending plumes of smoke towards them.

"Something's on fire" he commented unnecessarily and Jenny didn't bother to answer, gathering her courage and striding out the doors looking for the danger.

What she found was a collision and a large fire caused by one car violently crashing into another.

Through the smoke and flames she thought she could make out the outline of a body.

* * *

When Gibbs and Abby landed back in Washington and returned to the Navy Yard a mere two hours after receiving a harried call from McGee-clearing her of all charges and sentencing Chip in the same breath- the place was still in an uproar.

The main entrance to NCIS had been blocked by two fire engines, security cars and an ambulance. Moving past them Gibbs saw a still smouldering car cordoned off by police tape and DiNozzo running the crime scene, Paula, McGee, Ducky and Palmer following his curt instructions.

Leaving Abby dithering with the rest of the Navy Yard audience, he marched over and ran a cursory eye over all he could see before taking charge,

"Sit-rep" he demanded and DiNozzo looked up,

"Chip framed Ziva and died for it" he began in such an angry tone that Gibbs felt momentary shock and the slightest hurt before looking into the younger man's face and realising that it wasn't directed at him.

"Elaborate" he suggested and the man scowled, clearly unwilling. Delivering a quick head slap for comfort, Gibbs moved through the scene and to the green just out the front of the NCIS building where paramedics were tending to David, who sat on the grass between her perpetual bodyguards.

Kate looked up as he approached and gave him a tired smile, Haswari kept his eyes on the paramedics, watching their treatment of his sister with intense interest.

Gibbs wonders why he doesn't just treat her himself but then catches the furious glare of Jenny Sheppard and quickly works out that the three Mossad operatives had something to do with the redecoration of the parking lot.

"You know" he began, crouching down to meet their eyes, suddenly feeling like a primary school teacher addressing children, "Here in D.C we have rules and regulations about blowing things up"

David actually manages to look insulted, "It is not my fault; I waited until Chip locked the doors, told me that he was going to kill me- then I stabbed him in the neck and cut the lock out of the car, he is the one that veered into that station car and killed himself"

Gibbs took in this in and threw Kate a quick, bewildered glance but she only gives him a small shrug and an apologetic look, he turns back to Ziva,

"You don't think stabbing him in the neck might have contributed to his dying just a _little_ bit?"

She snorts, focusing on the paramedic as he cleans a small gash in her arm, "It was not a _fatal_ wound I assumed people would want him alive for questioning"

Well, at least she had had the courtesy to consider that NCIS might want to have a discussion with their evil lab assistant.

"However" Ari takes control of the conversation, showing more political and conversational savvy then his blunt, straightforward, knife-wielding sister "As matters currently stand, we would be happy to answer any questions NCIS has for us, provided they take place at our home so Officer David can rest"

Gibbs wants to point out that the home front is hardly the most professional place for an interrogation, but rethinks this plan when he takes a proper look at the three of them and can see the toll of the situation in the bags under their eyes.

Thinking back two days when Ziva David had stumbled into the fracas of their home, he realised that Haswari and Kate probably hadn't slept and that the doctors had recommended Ziva 'take it easy'.

Throwing herself out of moving vehicles probably didn't count as relaxing.

And Haswari and Kate didn't look as though they were sitting down purely in solidarity for their wounded companion- they were swaying every so often and their eyes stayed closed for just a fraction too long when they blinked, neither of them looked as though they could jump to attention if he asked for it.

"Alright" he sighed, "I'll get Tony to drive the lot of you home, we'll be there at seventeen hundred"

Haswari nodded and turned to the paramedic to start speaking in medical terms that Gibbs couldn't understand. Meanwhile Kate scrambled to her feet with a groan, "I'll go get our stuff" she volunteered, meandering to the front door and seeing that her fiancé made no move, Gibbs got up to help her.

Kate gave him a tired smile as they stepped into the elevator together, "It's okay Gibbs I'm just grabbing our stuff and going, I'm not gonna plant a bomb or steal State Secrets"

"Well your future husband wasn't jumping at the chance to come with" he pointed out and she caught the once-familiar hint of fatherly concern in his tone and offers a rueful explanation,

"That's two things right there, one- Ari wouldn't notice the apocalypse if Ziva had a nose bleed and two-...I kind of went through a independent feminist phase where I'd bite his head off if he tried anything chivalrous, he learnt to let me open my own doors and carry something heavy unless I specifically requested otherwise"

The elevator chimes and the doors opened, letting the two of them step out into the squad room, where Gibbs followed Kate to the break area,

"And plotting the confession of a killer?" he prompted as she gathered up two jackets and a handbag, "Is that something else he lets you take care of yourself?"

Kate looked up at him as she picked up something she'd dropped, "You're angry at me" she guessed and he shook his head, pulling the cap off and holding it in his hand, "No...no, just remembering a time when you wouldn't have pulled a stunt like that"

She had the grace to look sad, "That was a long time ago Gibbs, I was a different person back then, I was NCIS- not Mossad"

"You were a damn good agent Kate and an even better person; I just want to make sure my screw up didn't change that"

She smirked and crossed the room to stand a few inches from him, "It didn't, it was hard at first, but...Gibbs, Ari and Ziva- what we did today, I can see how that could be wrong but the thought of not doing everything I could to protect them...sometimes I'm with my fiancée and my sister and I don't know which of them I love more, we're like a family within a family and they're both kind of like you, they're always pushing me to better myself or aim for the next level. It's so..._great_"

She finishes with a smile and it's so natural, so joyous that he can't resist leaning forward and pecking her on the nose, "I missed you Kate"

She bumps her forehead against his, "I missed you too"

* * *

Tony pulls into the driveway of the house so fast Kate slams forward in the front passenger seat,

"Wow" he hears her gasp as she works the belt away from her chest, "Gibbs is really rubbing off on you"

He doesn't respond but instead kills the engine, "An agent will be along in a little while to get your statements, you're welcome to have lawyers present, you guys know the drill"

Sensing his hostility, Kate and Haswari make tracks out of the car but Ziva lingers behind, catching his eye in the mirror,

"You are angry" she announces, tilting her head and studying him through hard eyes,

He only releases a bitter laugh, running a hand through his hair in irritation "Ya think?"

"You are angry at me" she seems surprised by this and he is so frustrated that he punches the steering wheel as hard as he can.

"Dammit Ziva, you could have fucking died today" he shouts, "You could have died because you jumped into the car with a man who wanted to kill you..."

She tries to interrupt "He did not initially set out to..."

But he is long past the point of negotiating the details. He kicks the car floor and hits the steering wheel again,

"He wanted to kill you" he continues, shouting her into silence "And you didn't even trust me enough to ask for help"

In the ensuing silence she unbuckles the seat belt and slides forward, resting a knee on the glove box and her arms on the two front seats, she looks down with a sorrowful expression,

"I am sorry" she murmurs, "My entire life I have only ever been able to trust a select few people. I am not used to trusting men I have just met, it is new and I was afraid to pull it"

She mucks up the expression and somehow he finds a smile, a tiny smile but a smile nevertheless, appearing on his face. He releases his seat belt and reaches over to put his hands on her waist and drag her through the gap until she is sitting sideways on his lap.

"It's push" he whispers and she frowns in confusion,

"What?"

He grins and leans forward until their faces are only inches apart, "You push things, you don't pull them"

She opens her mouth to argue this statement but he draws her further into his lap and kisses her, softly, slowly, deeply, their tongues brushing against each other.

She reaches up a hesitant hand to his face, cupping his cheek and rubbing it gently while she repositions herself so she straddles his lap, he feels his mind start to go south with his blood flow and pulls them even closer together while his right hand travelled up to palm her breast through her shirt.

She manages to continue kissing and nod at the same time so he goes further, slowly unbuttoning her shirt and pushing it back against her arms.

She returns the favour, only with a little more force as seemed characteristic of Ziva, he's pretty sure he hears a button rip and makes a mental note to ask Abby to sew it back on later.

They are now both naked to the waist and enjoying the vast expanse of skin made readily available to them both, he kisses her breasts and snaps playfully at her nipples while she kitten scratches his chest, her nails just hard enough to make hurt pleasurable.

They are grinding together now, their bodies mimicking the act they are still moments away from committing but this is where it gets difficult.

Because they are both wearing pants.

Tony has it the easier of the two, he can push his down to his knees and be perfectly unhindered, but Ziva will have to remove her shoes, socks and jeans if she has any chance of being free to move in all the ways she very much wants to.

Fortunately she retains the flexibility from a childhood spent in ballet and can wedge her shoes and socks onto the car floor- Tony knows he should at least offer assistance, but when he sees her raise her hips and undo her jeans, pushing them down past her panties, he can't resist reaching out to her, sliding her underwear to the side and slipping her fingers into her already hot centre. Ziva gasps and moans with pleasure, nearly landing back in his lap when her body tries to force his fingers deeper inside of her.

"Ke- yes" She moans and he smirks, the first time she whispered in Hebrew he freaked out and failed, understandably mistaking the affirmative for another man's name. Since then she has tried her best to stick to English, or at least Western European languages and he has tried his best to pleasure her to the point that her native language is all she can remember.

He strokes her slowly, deliberately, counter-acting her eagerness and desire, but when she opens her eyes he knows she can read his face and with a quick deft hand, snaps open his pants and reaches in to free him,

"Not so funny now" he admits as the tiny part of his brain still working demands gratification. She laughs and turns over so that she is sitting on his lap as she removes the clothing, Tony reaches around and handles her soft, pert breasts, enjoying the sensation and contemplating- for a second-having her in this position.

What did it matter as long as they both found pleasure?

But then she looks over her shoulder and winks flirtatiously as she frees her left foot from the denim reminding him of why he always chose to make love where he could look into her face.

Her eyes, those deep, entrancing eyes- it was worth absolutely nothing unless he was looking into those beautiful orbs.

Of course, with a few well placed mirrors they could take any position they wanted- like that night in the hotel room in Virginia where the closet opposite the bed had been a long wall of beautifully clear reflective glass.

Remembering this makes him even harder and he pushes his pants and boxers down as far as they can go without dislodging Ziva, she pulls herself up and turns around to straddle his lap properly this time, she ducks down and gives him a quick, passionate kiss as she takes him into her hand and strokes him eagerly as she lowers herself down.

Had this been the first time they had coupled it might have been fast and hard, but somehow, in the short space of time they had known one another, they had become so familiar that sex was rarely about personal gratification for them now.

It was a coupling, slow, gentle, passionate and tender.

Ziva linked her hands around his neck and rode him slowly, always keeping eye contact except for when they were kissing.

He continued to stroke every available inch of her, glorying in her soft skin, taut muscles against him as he moved within her and rapid heartbeat.

She has the most minuscule tell tale signs that he has learned to read and thus he knows when she is getting close, her neck arches ever so slightly, her eyelids flutter, and she nibbles at her lower lip.

Seeing this, he grins and draws her in for another kiss, reaching down between them and caressing her to her orgasm.

Out of habit he keeps kissing her as she falls over the edge, her scream smothered against his mouth. Her release pushes him into his own and they collapse against the seat, panting and their hands fumbling to hold one another, clumsy in their sweat soaked bodies.

"We forgot to use a condom" she points out and even though Tony knows this is a serious issue he really can't think too hard at present,

"We've been tested and you're on the pill- hopefully we'll be fine this once"

She wrinkles her nose in concern and he pats her back comfortingly, her brother is a doctor and she was raised in an environment where sex education was readily available, especially for IDF and Mossad women. She knows the risks and she knows the facts.

Then again, she told him how Kate and Ari have been quietly trying for a baby for months now and still no luck. What are the chances they will be that unlucky?

Eventually they gather the energy to move from the car, dressing and sheepishly sneaking around the back, Tony hoping their short walk of shame won't be interrupted by their elderly housemate, Kate or worse Ari.

* * *

A/N- And before you all panic, no I am not going for a TIVA unplanned pregnancy, there are too many stories based on that plot out there already. However I notice that even in all the stories where its a TIVA one night stand, there never seems to be mention of condoms or many other contraceptives. They are important people, especially in a one night stand, the pill is not 100% effective and 0% effective in guarding against STI's which are on the rise! And now that you've received my Sexual Health lecture, please read and review this chapter.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N- I am so sorry this took so long- uni life was hectic as all hell an I was a little disappointed by the anticlimatic season finale, I mean pyramid was nice and kind of wrapped everything up but...meh it seemed like an episode from another show not NCIS.

* * *

Fornell drew his gun as his team approached the storage unit. For the millionth time he wondered if he should have sent the bomb disposal team to sweep the place first, make sure it wasn't littered with trip wires or any other items that would blow him into the earliest retirement possible.

Why'd NCIS have to piss off a forensically trained crazy, why couldn't they just annoy the usual nutjobs?

Ah well, no sense worrying about it now. Chip was dead and in light of the fact that he'd been an NCIS employee and tried to kill the affine relative of a former employee- Sheppard had thought it prudent to turf the case to the FBI so as to prevent the idea of bias coming up later.

Receiving a quick nod of affirmation, Sacks hurried ahead with Agents Boas and Davies flanking him as he unlocked the door.

It jammed and the team immediately jumped back, waiting for an explosion or something equally dangerous. Eventually Agent Davies inched forward and pushed lightly against the door, causing it to creak in protest as it travelled its path and opened wide enough for her to slip through and flick on the lights.

She screamed.

Without hesitation Fornell pushed past Sacks and Boas and raced into the unit, looking for the danger, his boot came in contact with something and he followed Davies eye line to see what had startled her.

A dead body graced the concrete floor of the small space, Caucasian female, roughly twenty to thirty years old, with severe acidic burns to her face and hands, all her teeth removed and her eyes cut from her head.

That wasn't what made Fornell want to heave though.

It was the fact that the woman looked like Abigail Scuito.

Maybe a slight difference in height and the tattoos on her arms were fake, but she was dressed in the exact same outfit Tobias had seen Ms Scuito wearing only two hours ago, down to the peace ring on her thumb.

Swallowing down the bile in his throat, he shifted Davies and himself sideways as Boas and Sacks made to enter, as he did his eyes flitted to the wall opposite him.

And he wondered if he could handle any more shocks to his system.

The wall was covered with literally hundreds of photos, all of them containing two main people.

Special Agent DiNozzo and Mossad Officer Ziva David.

Mesmerised, Fornell walked to the far edge of the wall and pulled a photo off to get a better look. It was of the two feds standing in Officer David's front yard, she was dressed in running gear and standing on the front porch looking down at him, his back was to the camera. Turning it over Fornell could see that it was dated about two months back and numbered zero-zero-one.

"Ho ho" Boas reached up and grabbed a photo, "Look at this beauty!"

Sacks eyes widened and before it even reached him Fornell felt his face start to colour.

It was a bad shot, but you didn't have to have it edited to make it out.

A rundown motel room three stories up, they must not have realised they were visible from the window, although the photographer would have had to be in a building across the street going by the angle. DiNozzo and David were on a bed together, their bodies blurred but clearly naked, flipping it over Fornell read the date and the number, feeling sickened by the evidence around him.

Chip must have been documenting their entire relationship.

Which meant David might not have been the target of his hatred, it could easily have been DiNozzo who had aroused the man's ire and Chip had discovered the easiest way to hurt the man.

Beside him, Sacks was chuckling as he picked out the most revealing and sordid photos, earning himself the first Gibbs slap Fornell had ever bestowed on his team.

"Bag it" he ordered curtly as he stormed from the storage unit, "And call the M.E for that" he added, gesturing to the dead doppelganger, sighing he rubbed his forehead and blinked in the harsh light of the hallway before digging out his phone.

He needed to call Gibbs.

* * *

Paula could feel the tension in the living room. It was so thick a chainsaw would have a hard time cutting it.

The second they'd walked through the open door and Gibbs eyes had landed on the young Israeli, he'd tensed and stared as if he'd never seen her before. Paula had looked to McGee for explanation but he had seemed as clueless as her. Haswari who'd come down the stairs at that precise moment, had taken one step into the living room before picking up on the atmosphere and backpedalling to what Paula assumed was the kitchen.

Leaving the blonde woman more confused than ever.

Thankfully Gibbs and McGee were taking the role of interrogators for the freshly showered and heavily wrapped Ziva David. The younger woman was nestled into the living room couch, covered in blankets with a steaming mug of tea on the coffee table, which Officer Todd was adding to with several plates of biscuits and sandwiches.

Personally Paula thought the woman was setting feminism back a few good years. It was an interrogation not an afternoon tea, the only reason it was taking place at the house was because Officer David clearly wasn't well enough to make it into NCIS and neither were Haswari or Todd for that matter. But that still wasn't a good enough reason for the woman to be hanging out in the kitchen.

Paula wondered what it said about her when she followed her in there.

* * *

Kate was standing at the bench, cutting up the vegetables for dinner. It was Ari's night to cook but when he'd gone outside for a smoke break she'd taken over, looking for any excuse to be absent and busy while Gibbs team was wandering around her home.

Correction, she wanted to be absent and busy while Paula Cassidy was wandering around her home.

Smelling the tobacco that signalled her boyfriend's return, Kate sighed with relief when he wrapped his arms around her from behind, kissing her neck affectionately,

"How much longer?" he asked and she shrugged,

"They're going over the car ride again, getting Ziva to repeat every single detail to see if her testimony changes"

"It won't, Ziva and I are skilled liars"

She rolled her eyes, "And here I thought it was because she was telling the truth"

"That as well" he allowed, releasing her to busy himself at the oven when Paula entered the kitchen, looking awkward and out of place in their home. Kate smiled in what she hoped was a friendly manner as Ari just avoided the blonde woman entirely.

Sometimes she wished that Ari and Ziva were as capable of deception outside of Mossad as they were on missions.

Then again, considering the situation that they now found themselves in, perhaps it was only Ari that needed lessons in deception.

In the quick conversation Kate had with Ari while they showered and changed- and Ziva taken the better part of an hour to get out of Tony's car- she'd discovered that he'd suspected his sister having a man in her life for some time. He'd assumed she had as well but it was simply one of those things the David family didn't talk about- like Eli's presumed extra marital affairs or his slightly concerning obsession with Tony.

However he had been surprised to find that her boyfriend was an NCIS agent, more importantly, an NCIS agent from Kate's old team, if he hadn't already checked with Eli he would have thought Ziva was on an undercover mission.

Kate knew they weren't that lucky, when Ziva had stumbled back into the house and run into Kate in the bathroom, the woman had been able to see the light and contentment in her sister's eyes.

It had nearly broken her heart.

Then again, she and Ari had managed a successful relationship and perhaps having already caught one team member in bed with a Mossad operative would make Gibbs less explosive in his anger the second time around.

One could hope.

With half an ear, Kate heard a mobile phone go off in the living room and a few seconds later Gibbs appeared in the kitchen on route to the back yard.

Leaving her fiancée to finish cooking the meal, Kate tried to unobtrusively slide out the door and stand on the veranda with her former boss. Since their first easy conversation in several years in the break room earlier, Kate had been hoping to continue patching up their mangled relationship. Gibbs had been like a substitute father or uncle to her for so long, and if Abby had been telling her biological family the truth about how she and Ari met...well Gibbs might be the only candidate to walk her down the aisle.

She gave him a tentative smile now as he spoke into his phone, frowning when his eyebrows shot right up his forehead,

"What?" he spluttered and out of habit Kate automatically stepped out of head slapping distance.

"And you processed that as _evidence_!" he shouted and Kate saw Ari's head shoot up in the kitchen, looking to her in concern, she shrugged and tried to concentrate on the phone call, hearing the tinny voice of another man on the line and unsuccessfully trying to identify it.

"I know you don't have any options that doesn't mean..."

He was cut off by more arguing on the phone and eventually released a resigned sigh,

"Okay, do what you have to Tobias"

He snapped the phone shut and looked to Kate with the blank stare he usually gave agents who had disappointed him,

"Did you know your sister was sleeping with DiNozzo?"

For a second Kate thought of Rachel Todd and wondered wildly if she had completely missed the mark on this one, then made the connection and chewed her lip guiltily,

"I didn't until Ziva was hospitalised"

"And you didn't think it was relevant to the investigation?"

"Um...no?"

Her answer was so weak it practically died as it fell from her lips, Gibbs gave her the infamous stare that had reduced tougher people than her to babbling fools, but after a few years at Mossad, speaking a language she still didn't quite get the hang of, Kate had learnt to shut up when she was nervous.

Seeing that his intimidation technique wasn't making the woman before him relinquish every detail of the uncovered affair Gibbs sighed again and pocketed his phone.

"There are photos Kate," he told her quietly, and she furrowed her brow in confusion, if NCIS had been surveying their home then why didn't they already know about Ziva and Tony? Picking up on her misunderstanding, Gibbs committed a rare act of elaboration,

"The FBI found Chip's storage locker filled with pictures of DiNozzo and _her_, photos that I'm pretty sure they won't want getting out"

"Oh" Kate stretched the word out as her cheeks flooded with emphatic embarrassment, photos were bad, photos that had been filed as evidence were bad, photos that would now likely be seen by every employee of the FBI and everyone in the Navy Yard were very, very bad.

Oh crap, Mossad and Eli would see them too.

"Don't suppose there's any chance of them going missing from the evidence locker?" she asked hopefully as Ari inconveniently decided to join them on the back porch.

Gibbs shook his head and then aimed an investigative eyebrow at her fiancée,

"Did you know your sister and my SFA were screwing around?" he demanded and Kate wondered if the temporary truce had just been shot down in flames, especially when instead of answering immediately, Ari just pondered the question as Gibbs had just asked him about the medicinal pros and cons of Ibogaine.

"I guessed that Ziva was seeing a man, but as it was her business and she didn't feel the need to tell me, I deemed it unimportant. I had no idea she was sleeping with Agent DiNozzo otherwise I might have pointed out the inappropriateness of it all"

Right, _inappropriate_. Now that Kate thought about it, the entire thing seemed damn right incestuous, Tony was like a brother to her, Ziva was her future sister-in-law, she was dating Ziva's brother and Tony was sleeping with Ari's sister.

How the hell would this look to outsiders?

Maybe she could post something on her internet profile about not being a swinger? Although that could lead to people assuming she was protesting in the face of guilt.

Oh this was messy.

* * *

Perhaps faced with enough bad memories and tricky issues for one day, Gibbs settled for a final glare of disappointment before storming inside, leaving the two of them shivering on the back porch and trying to figure out whether to call Eli now or start praying that he somehow didn't find out.

Neither seemed the safest option and in light of the fact that they had left the stove on, they headed inside, both giving a small sigh of relief when they heard the front door slam.

"They have left" Ziva called from the living room, her exhaustion evident in her tone. A few minutes later her gentle snores reached their ears.

Both allowed the silence to envelope them, left to their own thoughts and concerns as they tried to process everything that had happened over the last few days and still came up short. Kate figured it would be clearer to them once they had a decent night's sleep, until then; there didn't seem any danger appearing on the horizon.

They were setting the table when Ari finally spoke,

"I am not sure about this" he told her solemnly and she looked at the china before figuring out he meant something else,

"Ziva and Agent DiNozzo, I do not think they are a good match"

As tired as she was, Kate still managed to laugh at that, there were entire federal agencies out there who thought she and her fiancé weren't a good match- and look where they were now.

He gave her a wry smile to acknowledge the irony but still continued,

"He is not good for her Caitlin, if he's distracting her to the point that she never realised that she was being followed..."

"Hey," Kate rounded the table and cupped his face in her hands, "They'll be fine, besides..." she stared at the wall calendar behind him, "You should focus less on your sister's relationship and more on the fact that we're having lunch with my family in _two_ days!"

Ari cursed, "I'd forgot"


	23. Chapter 23

A/N- How would your parents react if you brought Ari Haswari home for dinner? Mine wouldn't react in this exact wording and manner, but it wouldn't be far off. I still own nothing

* * *

Kate Todd was nervous.

She hadn't slept well the night before which didn't help matters, nor the fact that Eli had called for his monthly catch up and asked why Amit Hadar kept referring to photos.

So by the time they reached the outskirts of Michigan and Kate found herself driving down streets she hadn't seen for years, she was near hysterical with anxiety.

"Breathe" Ari ordered her as she dug her nails into the steering wheel,

"Caitlin, breathe or pull over the car and I'll drive"

"I'm fine" she lied as she took a roundabout too quickly and caused the tires to screech in complaint, he raised his eyebrows to call her on it,

"Really? So you're aware we've gone down the same street twice already?"

"Oh as if you would know" she snapped, cutting across the lane to pull over and managing to stall the car, "I grew up here, you've never been here before in your life!"

"No but I can read a street sign" he argued back, taking her hand as she whacked the dash board,

"Caitlin, you need to calm down"

"I'm bringing a kidnapper and assassin to my parent's place for lunch, and thanks to the Abigail Scuito grapevine they now have a great little one sided picture of you" she pointed out and Ari flinched at the implication of the reception awaiting him at Caitlin's childhood home, he indulged in the image of him ringing his father and re-enlisting with Mossad, Eli could probably hire a chopper and have it land in Michigan in just under two hours; he'd be flying into a dangerous mission before Caitlin even had time to put a bounty on his head.

Better not take the chance.

Not knowing what to say, he simply sat there, stroking Caitlin's hand while her breathing evened out and waiting until she started the car again.

"My brothers might try and jump you when they get there" she warned him in a much calmer tone, "Nothing personal, they've just tackled and dog-piled every guy I've ever brought home, you're more than welcome to fight them off, not with weapons obviously...speaking of which" she cast him a suspicious glance, "How many are you packing today?"

He didn't answer but reached down to his left ankle and unstrapped the backup gun, unnecessarily checking the safety was on before storing in the glove compartment along with a knife or two, Kate couldn't keep watch and navigate the intersection at the same time. Whatever the number, he was presumably unarmed by the time she pulled up by the curb outside her family home. Taking a final deep breath she clambered out of the car and instantly spotted her youngest brother John parked a few streets down and leaning against the mail box with his head in his hands.

"Oh look" Kate whispered in pleasant surprise when a tall, dark man got out of her brother's car, she turned to her fiancée, "Johnny brought a friend home"

Ari didn't immediately reply but his facial expression changed enough so that her head snapped back just in time to see her brother John, kissing said man,

"I don't think you and I have the same definition of friendship Caitlin" Ari commented drily as she dropped the car keys and took off down the street, after a moment he followed, managing to reach the trio just as his fiancée exploded,

"Johnny!" she called, startling the man who Ari could now see had her colouring and complexion,

"What the hell?" she continued, waving a hand between the couple, causing her brother to go a deep red, "You're gay? Since when have you been gay?"

"At least a few months if he's bringing the boyfriend to meet the family" Ari observed from behind before extending an arm across her shoulder to the boyfriend,

"Haswari"

The man took it gratefully "Derek"

He noticed the leather bracelet on the man's wrist, recognizing the insignia from all his years in Scotland, "You're a soccer fan?"

Derek grinned, "Die hard"

Kate irritably knocked their hands away, stepping under their arms to get to her brother,

"You've been dating a guy for months and didn't tell me? Again, what the hell?"

Ari laughed at the hypocrisy her question and she glared at him, but John Todd had recuperated from the shock confrontation enough to find his voice,

"Pot, kettle and black, Katie" he pointed out, "You dated a guy for months and then moved to Israel with him for nearly four years and didn't tell anybody, we only knew you'd left the country when your Christmas presents arrived with international postage on them"

She scowled, "That's different"

"How? Cause Derek's never killed anybody?"

The two boyfriends in question were in an animated discussion about their favourite soccer teams when this statement was made and Ari automatically opened his mouth to protest but Kate got there first, "Hey, he's only ever killed enemies of Israel"

Johnny rolled his eyes, "Everybody who doesn't support that country one hundred percent is considered their enemy Katie and what about that med intern he shot?"

"Well, I see the word 'classified' no longer concerns Ms Scuito" Ari muttered off-side before nonchalantly continuing his conversation with a bemused Derek.

"Oh my God" Kate blurted with sudden realisation, "That's why you're coming out _today_, you reckon that mum and dad will be so pissed off at me for dating a trigger happy Muslim that they won't have time to be pissed off at you for being gay with a black guy!"

"That's not true!"

"Is too"

"Is not"

"Is..."

A sharp whistle cut through both Ari and Derek's conversation about their respective careers and Kate and John's heated argument. All four turned to look at a new arrival, a lovely red head with a baby on her hip,

"Hey everyone" she greeted with a smile, her voice almost identical to her younger sister,

"For those of you who don't know I'm Rachel Todd, I'm going to be the adult here today while those who should technically classify are revisiting childhood issues"

Kate stared open mouthed at her sister before flinging an arm towards John,

"He's dating a black guy!" she pointed out, stunned at the overly calm reaction, Rachel only raised an eyebrow,

"From what I can see he's not the only one, honey you do realise you're one part of an interracial couple? I don't think your boyfriend here would do too well in Texas"

"Actually they're engaged" Derek chimed in as they began following Rachel towards the house, she turned her head and swept her eyes over Kate's hands,

"Then where's the ring?"

"She hasn't said yes yet" Ari explained as they climbed the front lawn, and, temporarily forgetting his own issues, John frowned, "Then why's she calling herself your fiancée?"

"Because we're getting married" he answered and the confusion deepened,

"Does that make sense?"

"If you're Caitlin"

The baby Rachel was holding fussed and she sighed, "Okay, Jeffery wants to be fed so you're all going to have to head inside and face our parents, anyone who wants to run I'd suggest you do so now"

With one last shared glare that held all the age old resentments of siblings, Kate and Johnny rushed into the house to find their parents, claim first bestowed affection and hopefully win acceptance for their significant other.

Ari and Derek lingered in the hallway, looking over their new surroundings with curiosity and apprehension, and in Haswari's case- listening with half an ear for the tell tale sound of a shotgun being loaded.

"Wow" Derek murmured as they began shrugging off their jackets, "Could this house be any more white?"

Haswari didn't answer, his concentration was focused on the loud, rapid approach of footsteps and he physically braced himself as two large men thundered down the steps and tackled him to the floor,

"Found him" one of them chorused loudly, "Katie, found your boyfriend!"

"I wasn't aware I was missing" Haswari grunted as he caught a knee to the ribs,

"But thank-you regardless"

He tried to push himself up but neither of the brothers moved,

"I'm Eddy" the eldest one introduced himself, "This is Frank and you're dating our baby sister"

Ari looked to Eddy, "I am...is that going to be a problem?"

The older well-built sandy haired man narrowed his eyes in a mixture of contemplation and the general hostility he felt for any man who dated his baby sister added with the titbits of information Rachel had sent down the line after speaking with their parents.

"Maybe" he answered, trying to sound menacing, but Ari only shrugged,

"That's a shame" with a few quick leg manoeuvres he knocks both brothers off him and scrambles to his feet before holding out a hand to help them up. Frank offers a rueful grin,

"Nice to finally meet the man behind the myth" he says quietly as Eddy meets Derek,

"Did you really kidnap our sister twice?"

"Semantics" Ari corrects, "First time she just happened to walk into the hostage situation, second time I was on a motorbike and she jacked a car full of terrorists to follow me"

Frank laughs as Kate and John both appear in the living room looking flustered, Ari opens his mouth but she holds up a hand,

"Car keys?"

He fished them out of his pocket and handed them to her on the way out the door,

"Is the wine in the front or the back?" she called and he raised his eyebrows before answering. Everyone in the living room turned to John for explanation and he gave them a sorrowful look,

"This is going to be a boozy lunch" he offered by way of explanation.

* * *

As far as family reunions went, Mary Todd wasn't happy with this one.

Her youngest son had just announced his homosexuality and brought his boyfriend home without any warning, so now she had to place an extra seat at the table and make sure there was enough salad and roast for everyone.

Rachel had brought her husband but Eric had so far spent all his time in the backyard on a business call while his wife cared for his one and three year old boys.

Neither Eddy nor Frank, both of whom were clearly hung-over, had found women worth bringing home and her husband Edward was so stunned and disgruntled by everything that had happened so far that he was refusing to come out of his study.

Which left her in the kitchen with her youngest daughter while the rest of the family were sitting in the living room meeting one another,

Katie.

Mary didn't know what to make of her youngest daughter. The child she hadn't seen in years and had changed so drastically. She supposed working in such a masculine field must have done that to her. She was wearing dark winter colours today and while Mary couldn't deny her daughter looked striking with black and dark red, it didn't accentuate her femininity like pastels did, in fact she would go so far as to say it made her seem imposing.

Not something an unmarried woman should be aiming for.

"So" she finally found her voice after being shocked into silence by Johnny's revelation,

"Was it nice...living in the desert?"

Kate looked up and offered a small smile, "Not all of Israel is desert" she corrected, "It's mostly built up areas and lush vegetation" she then realised how much effort her mother was making,

"It was wonderful. Ari and I have an apartment right near a huge marketplace where we can get fresh food every day, there's a park nearby for to walk Tony in and I'm close to Mossad and the language centre"

"So you and Ari are living together?"

Kate nodded, "Yep, living in sin on a nightly basis"

"They're engaged!" Rachel interposed as she came in to nurse her child again.

"Although Katie's not wearing a ring and apparently hasn't said yes yet"

Mary dropped the spoons she was holding, "You're engaged?" she demanded, stunned and Kate blushed, "Kinda, it's not going to be official until everything's died down"

Her youngest daughter was engaged.

Her youngest daughter was engaged to be married and she hadn't considered it necessary to tell her own mother.

Mary's heart broke and she had to bend over and pretend to check the roast in the oven so as to hide her tears.

* * *

It was another half hour by the time lunch was ready and by that point everyone was feeling the tension. Edward had finally been lured out of the study by Rachel and Frank but he was determinedly sitting in his position at the head of the table and avoiding eye contact as people set the meal up. Derek had made the mistake of going to sit near him but a pointed look and slight head shake from Mary had him moving down the opposite end, next to her Katie and her boyfriend.

Once they were all seated there was a moment of awkward silence as everyone waited for someone else to make the first move. Rachel, who seemed to be coping with the day better than anyone, turned to Mary and Edward with a bright smile,

"You wanna say grace dad?" she prompted but the old man only scowled and picked up his cutlery,

"Nothing to be grateful for" he muttered, causing Derek and Ari to share another apprehensive look as the rest of the children reached for their wine glasses. Mary quickly got to her feet and started piling food onto her husband's plate while everyone else served themselves. Unfortunately Ari had never seen the marshmallow and potato dish before and had quietly asked Caitlin what it was, that in itself wasn't an issue, only he had switched to a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic, attracting the attention of Frank when she responded.

"You bi-lingual now Katie?" he inquired curiously and Kate had grinned,

"Tri actually, Hebrew and Arabic, figured it was necessary to speak my fiancés primary languages"

Edward dropped his cutlery onto the plate with a loud clatter and stared at his youngest daughter,

"Fiancé?"

Kate registered his surprise and glanced at Mary who only shrugged, she hadn't had time to break news of the engagement to her husband he hadn't spoken to her since they'd discovered John's homosexuality. Quickly she scrambled to backtrack and try and explain everything but Ari placed a hand atop hers and spoke their party line first.

"Caitlin and I haven't made it official yet, we're waiting for a couple of things to die down before we do, but we do plan on getting married"

Edward looked ready to throw up, and the glare he levelled at the tables occupants killed the jovial cheer they'd all tried to obtain.

"Is there anything else?" he shouted, waking Rachel's children in the living room, when her youngest began to cry she hurried out with a reproachful look to her father.

Edward ignored her, she was married and had given him grandchildren, she was a good child, unlike the rest of them. He turned towards his youngest daughter,

"First you quit your job protecting our president to join some stupid agency nobody's ever heard of, then you quit that to run off to the desert with a bloody terrorist associating Muslim who spends his days killing people..."

"He's Mossad dad" Kate interrupted, "He brings down Hamas and Al-Qaeda cells from the inside"

"Ha, Mossad!" Edward snarled in disgust at Ari who would have replied to the accusations if Caitlin wasn't repeatedly grinding her heel into his boot.

"I did some research on Mossad Katie and I don't care what that filthy sand n- claims to be they're killers, the lot of them"

Everyone at the table gasped or dropped what they were holding and it took a moment for Edward to figure out why, then he realised that he had uttered a word that was considered a racial slur these days.

Derek shot up from his chair, "I'm leaving" he announced simply, causing Johnny to groan,

"Der..."

"No" he told him firmly, "I love you Johnny and honestly eighty percent of your family seem like great people that I will willingly spend time with, but I've spent my whole life having that word thrown in my face. I'm not going to cop it if I don't have to"

"He was using that word to insult me, not you" Ari pointed out, himself standing up, Derek didn't answer, preferring instead to storm out of the house.

"It is my people he seems to have the problem with, both of them" he threw a rueful glance to Caitlin, it was rare he suffered hatred for being both an Israeli and Palestinian simultaneously.

"Basherte" Kate whispered, trying to calm the situation down before her father ended up tossed through a window, Ari only smiled and kissed her hand,

"I will go with Derek, make sure he is okay, call us when you are ready to leave"

* * *

Ari was at the door gathering his and Derek's jackets when Rachel found him,

"Hey" she called, still nursing her son; she gave him a shy smile,

"It was nice meeting you, Katie _never_ brings boyfriends home"

Ari chuckled, "I can see why" he reached over and stroked her son's head, "If you're ever near Washington or Israel come and visit, you're more than welcome to attend one of my family dinners"

She laughed, "Is there gunfire?"

"Only when Ziva cooks"

Lunch was over. Teddy and Frank had begun moving everything back to the kitchen at the same time Edward had stormed back to his study and Johnny had chased after his boyfriend. Mary reached the fridge as Katie began wiping furiously at her eyes and couldn't help but sigh,

"Oh Katie, why do you have to make everything so difficult for us?"

Her daughter turned on her with such fury in her eyes that she instinctively took a step back, "Difficult? Being with a man I love and who loves me is difficult for you?"

Mary could see the situation was completely out of hand and paused for a moment to try and make Katie see things from Edward's point of view, "It's just...well he's so different"

"So was I, when I met his family I wasn't like any of them and you know what...they welcomed me, they accepted me and went out of their way to be kind to me when they realised how much Ari cared for me" she wiped her eyes and then flung a stinging remark,

"His father, stepmother and sister know good manners"

That wasn't fair. Mary Todd was a devout Catholic who subscribed to home magazines and read all of Martha Stewart's writings, she prided herself on the perfect, proper way in which she had raised her children, not too hard, not too soft and she was considered a decent example by the wives of their neighbourhood.

She pointed this out and was horrified when Teddy and Frank who'd come within earshot burst into bitter laughter. Katie just watched it all with cold eyes,

"You know what mum? I think I'll come back when you're willing to accept me for who I am"

* * *

NCIS Director Jenny Sheppard felt cold with rage and blind with fury. Every time she closed her eyes, the sight of Gibbs kissing Todd swam through her mind. She couldn't eat, she couldn't concentrate, she sat in her office squeezing a biro in her hand until it snapped and red ink exploded onto her palm. She cursed and her heel shot out to kick her desk.

If only the bitch had died in Khan Yunis. It wasn't enough that the woman had essentially broken Gibbs team and gained everything in the process, but now she was being welcomed back with open arms and hedging in on a relationship that Jenny had spent years trying to rebuild after Paris. She wanted to sweep her hand and eradicate the bitch from America, send her back to Israel; presumably she'd been happy there and then everything could go back to normal, allowing Jenny the time and space to revive her career after the blow Haswari had dealt it at the airport.

Haswari.

That man could be useful to her; after all, men would do anything for the women they loved.

Jethro had taught her that.


	24. Chapter 24

A/N- Forgive me everyone for the terribly long delay, I was without access to the internet for three weeks and then had trouble writing this chapter. However I did get some time to catch up on some of the stories and noticed a severe hate for Ziva is starting to come out. I admittedly didn't like the season ending, it seemed a little convenient for me and much unlike the usual final episodes but I don't think Ziva went completely off the rails. Yes she forgave Ray but to be fair she was a woman who'd spent several months falling in love with a man and then found out he was in trouble, so its understandable that she would be anxious to see him and they never did break up. Secondly she missed Mike's funeral- yes that is bad- but the guy she loved and potential fiance was leaving for an undisclosed amount of time and if she was with him than surely that's slightly horrible but not criminal. Although I'm excited to see what happens when he surfaces in Tel Aviv, I reckon she might get angry with him then.

* * *

"Should I come with you then?"

Tony smirked as he bent over the bed, pulling on his socks and looking over his shoulder, admired the crazy ninja chick tangled in his sheets. She was naked again after coming back from her morning run energised and satisfied and finding him waiting up for her, her exercise outfit now lying discarded on the floor. She'd recently found a new route that enabled her to continue her habitual morning run from his place.

He wondered if he should be freaked out by that.

"So Gibbs can kill you too?" he shook his head,

"I thought he had no problem with our relationship?" she murmured, wrapping the sheets around her body and sitting up so she could fix a concerned gaze on him. Tony tried his favourite carefree grin and shrug- technically that was a lie. Gibbs had been furious when he'd found out and threatened a forced mass deportation of all Mossad employees to Israel. Tony could still feel the sting of the head slap, the relationship he had with Ziva didn't break the law against office dating, but it went against the laws of common sense. The woman was the known employee/spy of a rival agency from a country with- even at the best of times- a barely amicable relationship with America. She was the sister of a friend's boyfriend. Whichever way you looked at it, the situation was dangerous and inappropriate. What's more, Jenny Sheppard had been forced to deliver a sit-rep to an increasingly concerned Deputy Director David via MTAC after his children had gone to ground during the debacle. So Tony was expecting two stereotypical thugs to turn up on his doorstep any day now and play arts and crafts with his kidneys for dragging the Deputy Director's precious daughter into the unwholesome situation.

Paula Cassidy had demanded an immediate transfer over the issue.

Tony felt both grateful he wouldn't have to see her every day and guilty for that relief.

Unfortunately half an hour later when he stepped off the elevator with a coffee in hand and a smile on his face- Ziva had given him a long kiss goodbye- the first person he encountered in the bullpen was Paula Cassidy. Packing up her desk, the shock caused him to skid to a halt and glance at McGee's desk, but the computer geek only shrugged with embarrassment.

"Weren't you supposed to be gone an hour ago?" he blurted out and she laughed bitterly,

"Sorry to be inconveniencing you Tony, but I had a meeting with Human Resources this morning- turns out you can file grievances with them"

Tony knew he should have been humiliated by this, that was the desired result behind the remark, but really, the whole Navy Yard had seen the photos and Ziva and him by now, and an FBI agent had unwittingly offered to sell some of them, the risqué ones, to Hadar just last week.

Said agent now had a broken nose and an impending dismissal but the photos had still turned up at the Israeli Embassy. Really, Tony was over it.

"You can file a grievance Paula, but it won't go anywhere- the only rule you and I broke was Gibbs number twelve, and his rules aren't written law...yet"

"You risked the team's ability to function by cheating on me" she shouted throwing down her cardboard box.

"We were never exclusive and I broke it off with you the moment I realised she was special"

McGee, who'd largely been pretending he was ensconced in a cone of silence, spluttered into his coffee at this ill worded statement and Tony realised his mistake a second later but the damage had been done.

Paula's body tensed and her face went cold, without a word she turned on her heel and stomped to the elevator, after a moment's hesitation and despite his better judgement, Tony picked up her box of possessions and chased after her. He made it through the doors just before they closed and- as was typical with any member of Gibbs team- although shuffling around a cardboard box, he managed to flip the emergency switch. Shuddering to a halt and with the lights flickering out, Tony turned to Paula,

"I am sorry" he told her gently but she glared at him,

"Why her?" she hissed, "Youth, beauty, gymnastic skills?"

Knowing he probably deserved her anger, despite his best attempts to avoid it, Tony decided he owed her honesty.

He shrugged, "She's...strong"

Out of all the things he could have said, that was the worst. Paula was a feminist, she had spent her career striving to prove herself and break the glass ceiling and now, to be told that he thought her lacking in a virtue she had always prided herself on having, her shoulders slumped as if he had dealt her a physical blow. Seeing this, Tony sighed and placed the box on the floor so he could rub his face,

"I'm not saying you're not strong, I know you are, you fight institutionalised sexism every day but Ziva...she's something else entirely- she's done things we can't even imagine and never even questioned her right or ability to do them"

His face had lit up as he spoke and he seemed so happy that Paula came to a startling realisation,

"You love her" she whispered and his eyes widened with the old habit of denial weighing on his shoulders,

"It's too soon to tell"

She shook her head sorrowfully, "Wasn't a question"

She paused and sighed, giving in to the knowledge that she still cared deeply for the man next to her and wanted to protect him from harm,

"She's dangerous Tony, not because of what she does but because of who she is. I've seen her file, the woman was born and bred to be a weapon and she's seduced agents for information before"

He smirked, "Yeah I know, I read that same file the night I met her and I've never told her a damn thing- besides what secrets could I possibly tell her?"

Paula shrugged, "I don't know but don't you think it's a bit strange that in the last five years both she and her half-brother have taken two members under Gibbs command as lovers? Maybe it's not state secrets they're after but information closer to home"

Tony mimicked her shrug, feigning cluelessness while smothering a smouldering rage. Not because of the doubt Paula was placing on him and Ziva, but because she suggested that Haswari was playing Kate false.

He had gone to their home two nights before for dinner and a debrief regarding the photo scandal. When they'd all wrapped up for the night, Tony had been on his way out the door when he had stopped and watched Kate follow Ari up the stairs to bed, her eyes soft with adoration and he could feel her radiating her love for the man. The idea that Haswari lay in bed at night, cradling her head on his bare chest, holding her naked form as he slowly mined her of secrets made Tony literally feel sick.

Decisively he shook his head, "I don't think that's the case" he announced firmly and she shrugged,

"Either way, it's not my problem anymore"

Leaning forward she flipped the switch and picked up her possessions, they spent the rest of the ride down in silence and Paula waited until she crossed the threshold before turning back once,

"Take care Agent DiNozzo" she told him not unkindly, "There's a reason Sheppard and Mossad brought those three to Washington and I don't think it was so they could see the Capitol Hill"

He nodded gravely and the doors closed, allowing him a moment of privacy to grieve for a relationship which- while not as passionate as what he had with Ziva- could have easily led him to the white picket fence dream he wished to reach one day.

* * *

Kate Todd was bored. It was a Friday night and she was lying on the couch in her living room flipping lazily through bridal magazines and wondering what she could possibly do. Ziva and Happy had gone to bed early and Ari had left hours ago to go watch a soccer game with Derek, the two having become fast friends since the disastrous family lunch.

That was the only good thing to have come out of that day. Kate still hadn't spoken to her parents and any desire to try and make amends had been obliterated when Johnny had rung her in tears to tell her that he had received a letter from the family lawyer stating that he had been disowned and disinherited and that their father was demanding that her brother return the family photos that he had been sorting and cataloguing for years.

It had broken her heart to hear her brother's pain and to know that she would probably be facing that same fate.

She had cried herself to sleep that night- Ari had been working the late shift- she had been alone and frightened by what the future held. After all, no matter what crime they committed against her, at the end of the day they were still her parents and the thought of being disowned, of never again being welcome in her childhood home and never speaking to two people she loved was devastating.

In a moment of pure insanity she had found herself wondering if her relationship with Ari was worth everything it was costing her. She had assuaged her guilt for this treachery by buying herself a dozen bridal magazines the next morning and starting a basic plan of their wedding.

But these magazines were so boring! They were mostly pretty pictures and some inane articles about keeping the bridesmaids happy. Frustrated, Kate nearly jumped in delight when the phone rang, offering her a distraction, she snatched it of its cradle and pressed it to her ear,

"Kate Todd speaking" she announced with a smile.

But it fell from her face and momentary confusion quickly followed by dread filled her heart when she heard the voice on the other end of the line speak,

"Hey Kate its Derek...is Ari in? I wanted to know if he's interested in going to the soccer with me next week"

She didn't answer, she couldn't speak.

"Kate...hello?"

She was crying. The tears had rushed to her eyes and now two were slowly tracing a path down her cheeks as she struggled to speak,

"Uh...no Derek he's not in, um...you could try his mobile, I don't know when he'll be back"

Derek didn't seem to realise anything was wrong and left a message with her before she was able to escape the conversation. The phone hung limp in her hand as she pulled herself upright and sat with her head facing down between her knees, her head was spinning and she felt like throwing up.

Ari had lied to her.

He had lied to her again.

First his missions with Mossad, then her letters being intercepted and now...whatever he was doing.

She didn't even know what he was doing!

But she was damn sure going to find out.

She dialled a number into the phone, punching the buttons so hard she doubted they would work properly afterwards, she didn't even bother trying Ari's number, right now he didn't deserve the opportunity to try and explain himself to her. Besides, he wanted to deceive her?

Fine, he wasn't the only one capable of deception in their relationship.

* * *

McGee hated Friday nights.

Friday mornings and afternoons weren't so bad because he could labour under the illusion that he would be going home and spending the weekend unwinding after a long week, but Friday night was usually when the dream was shattered by the arrival of a dead body.

And this dead body was particularly bad. This dead body foretold that he wouldn't be spending a weekend unwinding for a long, long while.

This dead body was one of the world's most accomplished arms dealers, a man who'd been eluding the authorities in every country he'd visited for years.

And now he was dead on the deck of his expensive yacht.

"Professional hit" Gibbs surmised as Tony set up the portable lights, throwing the crime scene into bright illumination. The numerous FBI and NCIS agents- they were arguing over jurisdiction again- stood shivering and awaiting orders, it was pitch black, close to midnight, at a deserted wharf. The chance of there being witnesses was only slightly higher than the chance of McGee seeing his soft, warm bed tonight.

"Nothing to suggest La Grenouille had company" Fornell added, crossing his arms against the cold,

"And the man probably had more enemies than you Jethro; working through the back catalogue of people he's crossed could take months"

Gibbs only raised an eyebrow at this statement before issuing orders, "DiNozzo sketch, McGee go to the office, see if they caught anything on CCTV"

McGee really didn't want to move. While standing exposed to the open sea was freezing, at least there was light on the deck, he'd looked out the window as they'd driven through the port, it was dark, silent and the perfect setting for a cheap made-for-TV crime drama.

He didn't want to die but he knew refusing an order from Gibbs was tantamount to signing his death warrant anyway, so with a broken, 'Yes boss' he set off in the direction he assumed the office to be, pulling out and switching on his phone to download a map of the godforsaken-

His thoughts were interrupted by the device vibrating madly in his hand, checking it he saw he had a message from Kate,

'_Call me ASAP' _

McGee wondered if he was the only one who noticed how Gibbs-like Tony and Kate could act.

He'd ask Abby about it later.

Ten minutes and three wrong turns later, Tim was standing next to a sullen security guard who seemed to take umbrage with the suggestion that a murder had actually happened under his brilliantly trained, ever watchful eye. McGee was too tired to bother pointing out that the guard had left the teen girl soap opera playing on his laptop. He stood numbly and stared all the footage the CCTV had to offer him for the last five hours on fast forward and grabbed the discs despite not having seen a single odd occurrence on any of the cameras except for the one that should have been aimed in the general direction of La Grenouilles boat. It had been broken for the last week apparently.

Gibbs was going to love talking to that guard. McGee could smell his fury now.

"Sniper" was the verdict Gibbs gave when Tim finally found his way back to the boat,

"From the way the body fell and the blood splatter it would seem you are correct Jethro" Ducky encouraged as he and Mr Palmer loaded the corpse into the back of the van.

"However I cannot tell you more until Mr Benoit and I have a proper conversation back at autopsy, come along Mr Palmer"

McGee started as his phone vibrated again, checking the screen he saw that Kate had sent him another message, this one being more detailed,

_'Need to know where Ari's been tonight, can you trace his cell for me?'_

Tim paused in the act of climbing into the truck and Tony whacked him with his cap to display his annoyance but he went ignored.

"Boss?"

Gibbs looked up as he approached and held the phone out to the former Marine who stared at it incredulously, "You want me to do something with that McGee?" he demanded and Tim blushed,

"Uh no sir, it's the message...it's from Kate...she has no idea where Ari's been all night and uh..."

The look Gibbs was giving him could have frozen volcanic lava, but McGee didn't know how to backtrack and a few moments later his face broke and he sighed,

"Alright, we'll look into it when we get back"

* * *

A few hours ago it had been done, Ari had been sure that he and everyone he loved was safe. He had come home to find Caitlin in the living room waiting up for him, but when he had greeted her she had hurled the home phone at his head and screamed at him.

He had tried to calm her down, to talk to her but she wouldn't hear it, and before he had the chance to explain the FBI had stormed in and arrested him on suspicion of murder.

He was locked in an FBI interrogation room right now, pacing the floor impatiently, waiting for Agent Fornell to storm in and start interrogating or Hadar to burst in ranting about how Ari had diplomatic immunity and holding him here violated some boring law or another.

They'd kept him for an hour now and, although he'd been trained for interrogations, he was annoyed and concerned so when Agent Fornell did finally walk through the doors, with Agent Gibbs in tow, it took the former Marine a polite request for him to sit before Haswari did so.

Fornell seemed surprise by this rare display of cordiality but quickly composed himself, he opened the file and pushed three pieces of paper across the table to him,

Ari glanced at the images of Rene Benoit, La Grenouille but otherwise kept a straight face,

"You know who this is?" Fornell queried as he pushed the images back to the FBI agent,

"An arms dealer," he answered passively, "It's a small world and when you've worked the missions I have, you tend to meet everyone"

"He's dead"

"So I see, a bullet to the head if the photos are anything to go by"

If Agent Fornell had expected any display of emotion or any sign of guilt from Haswari, he was disappointed and in a moment of silence Gibbs jumped in,

"Where were you when this happened?" he demanded and Ari shrugged,

"Presuming this took place tonight- in prayer, the same Mosque I always attend three blocks from my home, you are welcome to ring and check, I had tea with several of the men afterwards"

Gibbs didn't doubt for a second that if he made the call there would be at least a dozen men who would swear on their lives that Haswari was with them all night. The man was too good an operative not to have safeguarded an alibi.

But he did have a weakness.

"Kate..." Fornell let her name hang in the air and noted the sudden change in Haswari's demeanour, the man was no longer reactive but now deeply interested, "seems to think otherwise"

Ari shrugged again, but no longer leant back in the chair, instead he leant forward, resting his elbows on the table and pressing his fists to his chin as though contemplating a medical or academic problem.

"I have not always told Caitlin when I was working missions, as such; she is quick to distrust me. I am working on that" he added when he saw Gibbs eyes start to darken with anger and the protective streak which even after years of neglect still lingered strong enough to want to hurt anyone who upset Kate.

"She reckons you were at the docks tonight" he told him, "reckons you killed La Grenouille"

Ari blinked in surprise at her easy belief in his guilt, "Does she have any evidence to support that theory?"

At the mention of evidence, both men somehow managed to blush and Haswari felt his brow crease in confusion, "What has happened?" he asked the discomforted men but before they could answer the door to the interrogation room burst open.

"Gentlemen!" Amit Hadar strode in, carrying a file in one hand and a mobile phone in the other,

"Unless either of you have a piece of paper signed by Haswari in which he relinquishes his diplomatic immunity I'm afraid I'm going to have to call an end to this farce right now!"

Ari's frowned deepened at the fury in Hadar's voice; he couldn't remember having ever heard him so angry,

"They were simply asking me questions Amit" he assured him, as numerous FBI and NCIS agents, Ziva and Caitlin gathered in the hallway to listen in, "They have no evidence of my guilt"

Hadar laughed at this and turned on the two agents with a savagery that had Haswari wondering if he would need to restrain the man,

"Yes, evidence" he growled, "Tell Doctor Haswari here what happened to your so called _'evidence'_"

"The car it was being transported in from the crime scene to the FBI in was stolen when the driver stopped to take a phone call" Fornell admitted, his voice so low and full of disgust, that even if by some sheer stretch of the imagination, that story had been viable, his tone would have cast doubt on it immediately. "Everything that you had on you has disappeared"

Everything?

Haswari knew that was a lie, but didn't feel the need to enlighten the men to the mobile phone hidden in his shoe.

"And now" Hadar continued, "Jenny Sheppard is claiming that you confessed your intention to kill La Grenouille and asked for her advice"

"What?"

Ari came around the table, approaching Gibbs, knowing that the Marine cared more for the truth than anyone,

"That is a lie" he swore, "Why would I confess anything to a woman I have never trusted, a woman that had my house bugged and has shown that I cannot trust her?"

Ziva moved into the room, stepping over the threshold, looking ready to come to his aid and repeat this statement, possibly add a few opinions of the woman herself, Kate, Ari noticed, made no move whatsoever and his heart tore a little at the fact.

Gibbs nodded, "I know that" he assured him, "I know what she did and I know she's lying, but we can't prove it, not without evidence"

Ari had the evidence, right there in his shoe. From the moment Jenny Sheppard had threatened to cause trouble for Ziva over her killing of Chip and the potential slaughter of the prostitute, he'd recorded every conversation between them. Every conversation in which she had demanded he kill La Grenouille, the man who supposedly murdered her father, in return for her letting Ziva and Caitlin live in peace. If he handed this over, and Hadar ensured that it did not get lost, he would be cleared by the end of the night and Sheppard couldn't touch him.

Except that Caitlin had presumed him guilty from the moment she had discovered his lie and had gone straight to the authorities to hang the murder upon his head. This was nothing, he had done worse and could still recover their relationship, but when he saw the look on Caitlin's face he realised there was no point fighting this- she had already given him up.

* * *

A/N- Tell me what you think.


	25. Chapter 25

A/N- Wow I am so sorry for the lengthy delay, uni life was insane and I had trouble writing this chapter for the reasons you shall see ahead. Thank-you for your patience

* * *

It was a joke.

A complete and utter joke of an investigation.

Hadar fought Fornell, citing diplomatic immunity, prejudice and the knowledge that Jenny Sheppard was trying to throw Haswari under the bus to cover for her own crime.

Gibbs stepped in, but his threats and bravado were a facade, his eyes shone with doubt and only his love and loyalty to his fiancé prevented him from following his gut.

Well that and SECNAV demanding the matter be dealt with as discretely as possible- there was no-one to replace Jenny Sheppard as Director and all of NCIS, him included, would be at risk of investigation if word got out.

So the bickering continued well into the night while those without the authority to mouth of to one another quietly went about the business of exploring every inch of the case, looking over the facts, studying the pieces of evidence that remained.

Around dawn Trent Kort sauntered in with the proud claim that he had killed La Grenouille and that it was all a cover for a grand international operation that would deal a staggering blow to the arms dealers of the world.

The agents looked up from their desks with tired, bleary eyes regarded him with disdain and disbelief before they silently went back to work.

It was only a few minutes after the work day traditionally began that Kate arrived back at the FBI with some clean clothes and breakfast for Ari. She didn't wish to speak to him right now but Ziva was at the Israeli embassy and it would look terrible if someone else had to do it.

He looked up when she entered his eyes red from exhaustion but still managed to give her a small smile.

It made her feel terrible.

It had been a long night, filled with never ending hours, enough time for the anger in her heart to cool and her stomach to fill with dread.

Ari had lied to her and she had left him to swing in the cold. He had struck at her trust in him and she had struck at his faith in others.

Kate didn't know when they'd started down this path, but they were so far gone she didn't know how to get back to what they'd once been. Tentatively, she placed the things on the table and moved behind his chair, caressing his shoulder and playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. He sighed and leaned back, his head against her stomach,

"I've been wracking my brain" he told her quietly, "Trying to recall the last time you and I were happy together- carefree" he amended hastily when he sees her hurt reflection in the two-way mirror.

"It was a while ago" she admits, and he closes his eyes,

"Before Israel, before Gibbs" he tells her, "And even then we were terrified of being discovered. It's been a long hard road Caitlin"

Fear stills her hand and she bites her lip, she can see where his train of thought is headed and the worst part is she's not one hundred percent sure that she wants to stop him. They've been fighting the world for the right to be together for so long that she can barely remember a time when the battle wasn't the cornerstone of their relationship.

At this point it feels like the battle is the only remnant of their love.

"I didn't tell you where I was going tonight because I have stopped considering you as an individual or anything more than an extension of myself and you thought me guilty in the hope that you would be able to leave with a clear conscience" he pulled away and slid out of the chair, standing to look down at her sad face, both clearly bracing for what was coming, "I think it's time we stop fighting and see that we've lost"

He bends his face to hers and she flinches as he kisses the corner of her mouth,

"I wish you happiness Caitlin" he whispers before gathering his belongings and walking out of the interrogation room,

'I'd rather be miserable with you then happy without you' she muses, but she doesn't run after him. She's too tired and his words were too truthful, she sinks into the chair and buries her face in her hands.

* * *

She is still there half an hour later when Ziva strides past the door and doubles back, spotting her incredulously,

"Caitlin?"

Kate raises her head and offers a weary smile, exhausted just by looking at Ziva's determination and intensity. "Hey"

"It is over" Ziva marches into the room, "I met with Gibbs and Fornell. The NCIS and the FBI are dropping the case in return for Ari not giving testimony that Sheppard blackmailed him into killing La Grenouille"

She blinked in shock, "Wow...I...can he do that?"

Ziva shrugged, "It does not matter he says he has proof and that he will release it if he is not allowed to leave immediately. Hadar made a deal with Fornell, the charges will be dropped- however because Adir will not allow our immunity to be reinstated we shall have to return to Israel, probably tonight" she finished by jerking her head to the door, "We need to go home and pack"

Clearly Ziva hadn't had time to speak to her brother yet, wishing she didn't have to be the one to break the news, Kate swallowed the lump in her throat and took a deep breath,

"I'm not going back to Israel" she tells her but she can see instantly that Ziva miscomprehends,

"Do not be foolish Caitlin, it is not sensible for us to stay in Washington, Ari is basically being deported and our jobs here were never anything more than an attempt by Adir to kick us out of..."

Kate held out her hands in a placating manner to interrupt, "No...I...Ziva, you and Ari are going back to Israel but I'm not going with you, Ari and I are finished, we broke up"

Ziva's rapid blink was the only tell-tale sign of the shock the news had been, "But...you two are engaged...you cannot just..."

She couldn't finish her sentence but Kate could easily guess the language forming in her mind- _quit leave walk away_. She knew she was doing all those things but she also knew that she and Ari didn't have the strength to continue.

Ziva frowned at her, her eyes shining with disbelief and disappointment,

"What about your job, what about your dog, what about your home, your friends, your fam-" she stopped herself in time, but Kate had known the young Israeli for too long not to be able to predict her thoughts and words.

Family. For half a decade the David's had been her friends and family. Yet they had been so out of desperation and fear. She had run away to Israel out of fear of Gibbs anger and desperation for a chance to escape and thus prevent the punishment and ruin she had been so certain of facing. She had run that day and she had been running ever since. In a way she had been cruel by allowing herself to become a member of their family. The David's had been ripped to pieces by the death of little Tali and Kate had inadvertently become a means for the family to become whole again. She had used that to her advantage and assuaged her guilt by telling herself that they were all she had. She hadn't given an honest thought to those she had left behind in America aside from the occasional crocodile tear for what she had lost but never really fought to hold. Her life in Israel was built on that lie and it was time to stop running and face up to what she had done.

"My family is here Ziva" she tells her dearest friend firmly, in the hopes of making a clear break for both of them,

"My family and my life is here in Washington"

"Hah!" the Mossad officer slams her hand down on the table in anger, "Family? You call that man and woman that despise you family?" she looked as though she was ready to spit and Caitlin didn't blame her, because at that moment she didn't know if Ziva was referring to her mother and father or Jenny and Gibbs.

"Papa knows about Tony and do you know what he asked me?" Ziva demanded, her eyes burning with fury, "Is this man strong enough to support you and accept you for what you are? _That_ is family Agent Todd- that is _love_. I do not know what is so great about those two people you call parents but if they rejected the man you loved it because of the colour of his _skin_ than you have failed them and are expendable"

"Nevertheless Officer David, I am going to stay in Washington and try to rebuild my life. I am sorry but that doesn't change anything"

"No" Ziva ground out, looking at her coldly, "I suppose it does not. Good-luck Caitlin, you will need it"

With that she turned and marched away with the same bearing she'd had when they'd first met in Ben Gurion airport all those years ago.

* * *

A handful of hours ago barely even two days Anthony DiNozzo had been worrying about whether or not his chronic commitment phobia would ruin his budding relationship with Ziva David.

Now he was propping up a bar in Georgetown while Ziva David boarded a plane to Israel with her brother, her luggage and a seething resentment for America.

She hadn't even said goodbye.

He'd tried to call her but according to Fornell, Haswari and David were being treated as _persona__non__grata_by the United States, they were essentially imprisoned at the Israeli embassy, not allowed to set foot onto American soil until they left for the airport. Their phones had been confiscated when they'd arrived at the FBI and had been processed as evidence so they couldn't get them back and apparently the State Department, on the suggestion of a certain agency director, had gone out of its way to restrict the freedom and movement of the two Mossad operatives as much as possible.

In fact the rumour mill went so far as to say that, the Israeli ambassador and his staff excluded, all the embassy employees had been told not to leave the property for fear of arrest. Mossad Deputy Director Eli David was reportedly furious and half the Israeli government was siding with him.

So Tony supposed that considering the likelihood of Ziva landing down in Tel Aviv to find herself in the middle of a coup d'etat headed by her father and the Kidon unit- she was probably preoccupied and the State Department probably hadn't let her near a phone anyway.

It still hurt though.

He looked up when a suitcase hit the floor next to him and saw Kate sliding onto the stool, she gave the bartender one of the bright sassy smiles she'd used to give him during times of stress or teasing,

"Hey Tom" she greeted, her eyes flickering to his name badge, "I'll have three shot glasses and a bottle of vodka"

Tom was a middle aged barman with a beer gut and a cowlick, he gave Kate a greasy look that made Tony want to punch him in the face, instead he settled for another sip of his scotch,

"Vodka's a hard drink for a pretty lady like you" he sneered and before the Special Agent could open his mouth to defend his partner, she snapped.

"Well buddy, in the last twenty-four hours I've lost my fiancée, my house, my career, my diplomatic protection, my dual citizenship, my best friend and- quite possibly- my dog, the one thing I do have left is my gun- so, I'll have a Russian vodka and three shot glasses please"

Tony raised an eyebrow as Kate filled the shot glasses,

"We expecting company?"

She smirked, "Nope," she pushed one his way, "But you can have one if you want"

With that she flicked her wrist and downed the two shots before refilling,

"Just got off the phone with Eli David, my would-have-been-father-in-law, apparently I can stay in the house on Vasey St for as long as I like, although I'd have to pay rent because I'm no longer a Mossad employee, although legally I should have been paying rent in the first place..."

"I'm sleeping on your couch tonight by the way" she interrupted her rant to inform him and he grinned,

"Not worried I'm gonna try rob you of your virtue Katie?"

She laughed, "After five years with Mossad- I'd like to see you try Tony"

Images flashed through his head then, little scenes taking place in his apartment where Kate beats the crap out of him with his favourite DVD's or CD's or, in one particular imaginative piece, his Playboy Bunny egg timer.

He brings his attention back to the moment, mainly because his former partner is hitting the vodka harder than Marines on shore leave. She's about halfway through when Tony's phone rings and he turns away to take the call, wincing when he sees it's from Gibbs. He really doesn't want to have to deal with a crime scene right now, not when Kate looks damn close to creating one herself.

"Hey boss" he greets cautiously, "Need a hand with the paperwork?"

"Kate staying with you tonight?" the former Gunnery Sergeant demands, typically ignoring the pleasantries, Tony feels relief trickle down his spine even as he acknowledged that word must have got out about Haswari and Caitlin's break-up, or at least that's what Tony assumed it was. One side of the story wasn't being very forthcoming and the other was a barely domesticated sociopath currently en route to the Middle East.

"Yeah, provided I can carry her drunk ass there. Five years in Israel and I reckon she could outdrink you at this point

"Look after her DiNozzo, tell her to take a few days, get on her feet"

That caught Tony's attention, "Take a few days before what boss...?"

Apparently nobody in Washington felt like divulging tonight because Gibbs just hung up leaving a frustrated Tony who pocketed his cell phone, spun on his heel and headed back to the bar, cock blocking some guy making his way over to Kate,

"Sorry pal" he clapped him on the shoulder, "She's spoken for"

Kate heard this, turned around and frowned, "No, I'm not- not anymore"

Fixing a careworn smile on his face, Tony slipped an arm around her waist, grabbing her suitcase with his free hand,

"Come on," he told her gently, "Time to go home"

She laughed bitterly at that word, but managed a brave smile before turning her face away so that he couldn't see her tears.

* * *

A/N- More coming soon


	26. Chapter 26

A/N- Sorry for the late update, I- once again- struggled to write this chapter

* * *

As far as coup d'etats went, Eli David reckoned this one wasn't too bad; it was only a metaphorical bloodbath with most of the chaos being kept behind political doors rather than rioting in the streets.

However that didn't stop him from sending an armoured car and escorts to pick up his children from the airport.

Or having them brought straight to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem so he could have them by his side.

Ever since Adir had removed Ziva, Ari and Caitlin's diplomatic immunity during the first investigation in Washington unrest had been brewing. How could Mossad operatives trust a Director who had casually hung his agents out to dry only to find that they weren't even guilty of any crime- possibly bar self-defense in Ziva's case, strangely enough everyone seemed to have forgotten to investigate that.

Furthermore how could the Israeli government trust a man who'd ordered a massacre against the Palestinians? Admittedly the Israeli government couldn't usually give a damn about what happened in Gaza but ten thousand civilians' dead was too hard a pill for even them to swallow. Especially when they couldn't even hold up evidence of terrorist activity in that area.

No, Adir was hanging by a thread; his supporters were deserting him in droves. When Eli had told his secretary that he was taking an office in Jerusalem this week, officially as a 'temporary advisor', the entire Kidon unit, half the Political Action and Liaison Department and a scattering of Katsas turned up that very afternoon and took over every available space. Aside from visibly show their support for the Deputy Director, there wasn't much for them do to at the Prime Minister's Office that they couldn't do from home, but they were career orientated and Eli knew that if it wasn't for the lack of necessary space and equipment, the Technology and Research Departments probably would have absconded with the rest of them.

Any moment now, the Prime Minister would appoint him Director of Mossad, either firing Adir outright or demanding he resign. Eli reckoned he'd receive the title before the day was out.

But his main interest at this particular time was his two children stepping out of the car, Adina who'd stayed by his side for the last fortnight, rushed down the steps of the building to embrace the pair, wrapping her arms about them both and clearly startling Ari who'd never been shown such genuine affection from her before.

The last few months had been hard on Adina, she'd missed their daughter dreadfully and with all that had been constantly befalling them in America had frequently been a nervous wreck, at one point during Ziva's investigation she'd stormed into Eli's home office, found her passport and sworn that she was hopping on the next plane to Washington and slapping one Leroy Jethro Gibbs across the face for interrogating her child.

And Eli had wanted to wish her bon voyage except he had enough family members wreaking havoc overseas without another one going rogue on him.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. An adage that appeared to ring true with Adina. She'd either come to appreciate Ari or at the very least not despise him as much as she had previously done.

And at the moment, Eli assumed Ari needed all the affection he could get.

That day in the airport, when he'd said goodbye to Caitlin, he'd suspected that it was the last time he would ever see her. It had been a dark time for the family and everyone who wasn't bound to them by blood or necessity had been jumping ship until such a time as they were on the ascendance again.

He'd told her that he wouldn't blame her if she and Ari fell apart; honestly, it was a miracle they'd lasted this long with all the odds stacked against them.

But still, when he'd taken her call that morning- or evening in D.C- and heard her tentative voice on the other end of the phone, he'd missed her and had honestly considered making everything as difficult as possible so that she'd have to return to Israel and hopefully change her mind. It was manipulative and interfering, but Caitlin had been good for his family and especially for his son.

Even if she'd never been truly happy in Israel with all she'd left behind.

He couldn't concentrate on that right now though. He had a meeting with half the Secretary's of State, every high ranking General in the IDF and a gaping hole in Mossad Executive that would be created by his promotion.

Entering the foyer, Ziva spotted Ben Gidon and hurried over to the corner where the Kidon unit had set themselves up- bullying the Parliamentary interns into shifting the water cooler and coffee machines. Adina went to make a couple of dozen phone calls which left Eli standing with his son in the middle of the large room for roughly a second before Ari grabbed him by the upper arm and frog marched him to the through the closest door, surprising a dozen men and women sitting in a darkened board room discussing water restrictions and studying a power presentation. The woman at the head of the table opened her mouth to protest before realising who the intruders were and making a quick gesture to her peers. The evacuation was almost silent and once the door was closed, Eli shook himself free and sat down at the table,

"Shalom Ari" he rolled his eyes, "Just because the American's are famed for their rudeness..."

"I need a mission" Ari demanded pacing the room before leaning against the wall, Eli raised his eyebrows, "Have you forgotten that you are no longer a Mossad operative"

His son shrugged, "Reinstate me"

He scoffed "For that to happen you'd have to undergo and _pass _a psychiatric evaluation"

"We skipped it last time," Ari argued but Eli shook his head,

"My word was good enough last time, it won't be this time, not with Khan Yunis and Caitlin and your whole world having collapsed or upheaved around you"

His son's faced flushed with fury and Eli knew that were anyone else to use that logic against him they would have been facing a black eye, but in Caitlin's absence somebody had to stand up to his son. The man was on the very edge of a dark abyss and Eli didn't know whether Ari was fighting his way back or preparing to jump over. Caitlin was gone and according to Ziva his son was too determined to give her a chance of normality and happiness to fight that, but he was a soldier and he needed to fight _something_. He sighed, if he didn't return his son to active duty he would find other means to satisfy his urges.

"If..." he stalled for time to give himself a chance to process his thoughts, "If you were to pass the evaluation I would be willing to send you on a reconnaissance mission"

Ari didn't smile, just nodded his head, "Thank-you father"

* * *

"No, no way in hell!"

Jennifer Sheppard shouted those words across the living room in the hopes of making it clear to her fiancé how detestable and outrageous his request was. She stood in her house still in the green suit she'd worn to work that day although she'd kicked off her high heeled shoes and left her paper work on the coffee table. It had been knocked to the floor when Gibbs had handed her the file he wanted her to sign.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs didn't even bat an eyelid.

"Can you really tell me no Jen? My team, my rules"

"My agency!" she argued, pointing her finger and glaring "And I don't want that traitorous bitch in it"

"She didn't betray anyone" Gibbs argues, his eyes flashing bluer than usual and reminding Jennifer of how handsome he was.

He continued arguing for the other woman. "She got out clean and she's still clean now. She never betrayed her country or her people. She's the best and I want her back on my team where she belongs"

Clean. For some reason Jennifer hated that word- hated the connotations.

Clean, innocent, pure. Nobody in the Director's seat stayed there by following the rules and playing nice, no everyone had to do what she had done, they were entitled to do what she had done, besides she was untouchable, she was a Director, she could command the entire Navy Yard if she needed.

"How can you trust her?" she demanded of him, but he only shook his head before striding from the room, tossing one more comment over his shoulder,

"I trust a lot of people I shouldn't Director- I might even make a rule about it"

She picked up the glass of scotch that had been sitting on the coffee table and hurled it into the fire place in her anger. The flames were fed by the alcohol and flared momentarily before dying out on the soaked wood.

Her fury did no such thing.

She hated Caitlin Todd for everything that wretched woman had done and now Jethro wanted to cause her pain by insisting she come back to NCIS- technically despite his determination Jennifer would have to sign off on her reinstatement unless he went above her head to the SECNAV and Director Sheppard had no intention of letting that brunette bitch back on her turf.

* * *

"How 'bout that one?"

"No"

"That one?"

"No"

"That one?"

"Dammit Tony I told you, I'm not buying any apartments that look like one of your movie sets!"

Tony grinned and wolfed down another donut, "See, you say that Kate but you really haven't given any of the places a chance"

She rolled her eyes but otherwise ignored him, flipping through the magazine filled with pictures and details of apartments and houses for sale. They all looked lovely but she found a problem with every last one of them. The first one had been too far from work, the second had been just outside the Navy Yard, nobody in NCIS liked living that close to work, it was too easy for crims to track them down or follow them home, the third was too big, the fourth too small, the fifth was too dark, the sixth too bright, the seventh was only two streets away from Tony- too great a risk of drunken visits at three in the morning, the eighth too close to Director Sheppard- the less said about that the better. She'd spent the last month living with Tony; sleeping on his couch despite his protestations they could share the bed and rewiring his TV several times so he couldn't keep them up all night watching movies.

She knew she needed to just grow up and pick an apartment, any old apartment but the emotional part of her was pointing out that this wasn't just a new place, it would be her way of severing her ties with Israel, her admitting to herself that she and Ari were finished.

This was probably why she thought the ninth apartment was totally unacceptable because it looked like it had been decorated by a Stepford wife.

Living on DiNozzo's couch wasn't so bad by comparison, sure she had to lock the bathroom door while she showered, had to factor in his eating most of her groceries, his rummaging through her things when he was bored and his tendency to jump on her in the mornings...she really did need to find her own apartment and _fast_.

A knock on the front door startled them both and Tony gave her a quick smile before getting up, Gibbs marched down the hallway tossing a file over her magazine and underneath her nose,

"Papers, sign"

She got a flashback to Eli and her on the couch all those years ago. She flipped open the folder as he drew a pen from his jacket and held it out to her; it was a rental contract for an apartment in Georgetown, for a ridiculously cheap sum.

"Uh Gibbs" she frowned and looked up at the Marine's face, "Shouldn't there be a couple extra zeros in the rent?"

Tony bent over her shoulder to have a look, "Hey it has a swimming pool and a hot tub- awesome Kate you can invite me over for a...ow"

Dispensing with the head slap, Gibbs returned the pen to within Kate's reach,

"Apartment belongs to a guy I know, he owes me a favour and needs someone to live in it- he's in Moscow for the next five years"

"Wow, that sounds above board" Kate commented, looking over the pamphlet listing all the facilties. Gibbs smirked, "Well if you don't want it..."

"No" she cried grabbing the pen, "If I spend one more day with DiNozzo trying to walk in on me changing I will go crazy" she scrawled her name along the bottom of the page,

"Thank-you" she added sincerely, smiling at him, "It was kind of you to help"

He nodded, "You forgot to sign the other page"

She raised an eyebrow having missed nothing, "You mean the employment application for NCIS?"

In the background she heard Tony choke on his donut, but Gibbs gaze didn't even falter, she shook her head,

"Assuming for one second that Jenny Sheppard is going to allow me to set one foot on the Navy Yard after she blackmailed my ex-boyfriend into committing murder. What makes you think that I would _want_ to return to NCIS?"

Gibbs bent over, resting his hand on the back of her chair, "Because you never wanted to leave," he stated simply, "You were happy at NCIS and you would never have left if I hadn't screwed up..."

"We both screwed up" she interrupted, "I should have confessed everything the moment I began my relationship with Ari"

He made a dismissive face, "Fine, we both screwed up, but now's our chance to make things right again, there's an empty spot on my team and your desk is still there"

She smiled and once more signed her name before handing the folder to Gibbs, "Thank-you"

He kissed her forehead, "See you at 0700 tomorrow"

It was done.

A few hours later she was sitting on the couch staring at the TV, not even focusing on the movie Tony was showing her when he paused it and turned to look her in the eye,

"Are you really okay with coming back to NCIS?" he asked and she shook her head,

"No, it feels like Gibbs is trying to erase the last half decade of my life and those years might not have been perfect but they were mine and I loved them"

"So why are you coming back to NCIS?"

"Because my relationship with Ari, my life with him was already floundering but Jenny Sheppard drove the final nail into the coffin when she conspired with Adir to bring me here and used my boyfriend for her own sick purposes. She sure as hell won't want me at NCIS but I need something to fight and I'm not going to let her get away with what she did. Nobody else may be interested in condemning her but she's going to see my face every single day and know that I'm watching her every move ready to destroy her let _that _be her sentence"


	27. Chapter 27

A/N- I would have loved to have found out why Ziva was being interrogated in 'Life before his eyes' and had more Haswari running around, they should have made it an hour long episode.

* * *

Haswari loved Rome.

The ancient city, the ruins, the cobblestone streets, the tiny alleyways that led out into tourist filled areas. They were all perfect for running and hiding from the mafia.

Haswari had heard that the mafia had come by a massive stock of weaponry and had gone in as a Hamas operative interested in buying- unfortunately the Don had been disgusted by the thought of selling to a terrorist- whom he considered to all be monsters for blowing themselves up with no profitable gain. When he had turned up to the meeting an hour early, it was to find the henchmen setting up cement and had promptly bolted. They, of course, had given chase but these were men who dressed in expensive suits and shoes and dined daily at the finest restaurants. They were not made for prolonged chase. Haswari by comparison kept to the strict fitness regime of Mossad and a childhood of running whenever an Israeli tank rolled into Khan Yunis. What he lacked in geographical knowledge of the city, he more than made up for in speed.

As luck would have it, he made it through a laneway and found himself staring at the Vatican. Regulating his breathing and slowing to a casual walk, he followed a group of tourists as they meandered to the large courtyard filled to the brim with people waiting for the Pope to give his weekly mass. Moving deep to the centre of the crowd he took out his phone and called his handler.

"Shalom" the male voice answered and he had to struggle with the sense of peculiarity he felt every time he rang and Ziva hadn't answered, but she was on her own mission in Cuba at the moment.

"No good, they won't sell in fact they want to kill me, I need an extraction asap"

He could almost see his handler nodding at the other end of the line, "Alright, give me an hour, are you safe?"

Haswari grinned, "More or less I think"

"Where are you?"

"The Vatican" he answered and ended the call to the sound of his handler swearing in surprise, he then switched it to silent and waited as priests began to exit from the doors in front of him. He felt for his wallet and wondered if the glorious home of St Peter or whatever it called itself had a souvenir shop. He could get something for Caitlin.

It was a moment like this, so bizarre in its absurdity- the mafia would surely be too devout to kill him on such holy ground- that made him miss her most. He wondered if he might send her a text message detailing the whole scenario to her just to see her response, but then reminded himself that contact for either of them right now probably wouldn't be healthy. After all, they'd only been apart for two months.

A present would probably be inappropriate as well.

* * *

Kate had known that returning to NCIS would be tricky; it had taken over a month for her paperwork to go through because Director Sheppard had been dragging her feet and when she had finally been validated as an agent it was only to find that she couldn't go out in the field because the insurance and medical forms she'd filled out had been 'lost'. So she was stuck with deskwork and the MCRT was essentially a team member short every time they left the building. It was frustrating and she'd just been called into Director Sheppard's office ten minutes ago to be told that she'd filled out the wrong forms; apparently they were for new NCIS employees not returning ones so she'd have to redo them and start the whole process again.

Unfortunately Kate had taken one look at the smirking red head and spouted the first thing that came to mind, fortunately she was pretty certain that the Director's grasp of Arabic was weak enough that she wouldn't understand exactly what it was Kate had called her but she was sure that Sheppard got the gist.

She'd stormed out before the woman could begin lecturing her on appropriate behaviours and respect in the work place.

She was in the bathroom splashing some water on her face and contemplating whether or not to call Gibbs and ask him for help regarding his bitch of a fiancée, she decided there was no need, when he came back to the office and saw that she was once again filling out forms instead of getting on with her work he would snap and storm up to Director Sheppard's office on his own volition.

He was as tired with these games as she was. She knew he just wanted everything to quiet down and return to some semblance of normal, which he couldn't with Jenny conspiring to create trouble and drama at every turn. The red head didn't realise that she was tearing her relationship to pieces and alienating her friends and allies in her desire to destroy Kate.

Speak of the Devil.

"Agent Todd" the Director slammed open the door and stormed into the bathroom,

"How dare you walk out in the middle of a meeting..."

Kate interrupted her by snorting, "A meeting? That was you calling me up to your office to screw me over Director; a meeting would have been a productive use of my time"

"It's not my fault you consistently fill out the wrong forms Agent Todd" she argued, her eyes flickering to the mirror to pat her coifed hair back into place, for some reason this infuriates her further,

"All due respect Director, if you want to be entirely blameless then you should probably not have sent me the emails with the 'wrong' forms attached, bit of a mistake on your part"

Jenny Sheppard flared with anger, "I don't like what you're accusing me of"

"Yeah well then you're not going to like this ultimatum then- either reinstate me as a fully fledged NCIS agent by tomorrow or so help me I'll everyone what you've been up to behind SECNAV's back and destroy you"

Kate knew what she had said was wrong but she was very nearly at her wits end, in the space of a few short months she had lost her fiancé, her adopted country, a career she had been enjoying and two families- the David's and her own. So to be facing off with this small slip of a bitter conniving woman who hated her when those she had actually wronged had managed to forgive her was beyond infuriating.

It worked though,

Sheppard reeled back and stared at her blanching, "And which secret would that be Agent Todd?"

Kate scoffed and her mouth was open before the Director's strange wording stopped her,

Which secret, not what secret.

She wasn't calling her a liar and trying to call her bluff, she was asking what secret Kate had knowledge of which meant there was more than one that could destroy her and she had no idea which of these Kate was supposed to have,

"You're in over your head" she gasped, resting her hip on the basin,

"You're in so deep you can't even begin to guess what I have on you" Kate realised,

"You're so far gone that you reckon one little piece of information would be enough to swallow you whole...my god you need help" she whispered, feeling empathy and unthinkingly reaching out to touch the woman. For the merest of seconds vulnerability flashed in Jenny Sheppard's eyes and she looked at Kate with such hope that the younger woman nearly forgot the crimes that had been committed against her. But then that moment past and the hope receded behind the cold mask that was becoming her most familiar face.

"Keep yourself in line Agent Todd," she snapped before storming out of the bathroom.

* * *

A few minutes after both women had left, the far end stall opened to reveal a flabbergasted Michelle Lee, she tentatively edged to the sink, as though terrified either woman would return at any minute. When her hands were dry she shot out of the bathroom and almost ran back to her department, throwing only one glance to the MCRT bullpen where Agent Gibbs and DiNozzo were standing around Agent Todd's desk laughing about something. Reaching the legal department, she fell into her desk chair with a sigh of relief and then had to forcefully stop herself from bursting into tears.

The Director was corrupt and clearly Agent Todd knew about it which meant that possibly Gibbs team or Mossad knew as well. So once again the power players within the Intelligence world were bending and breaking everything to suit themselves.

Agent Todd had wanted to be with Officer Haswari and so Mossad had hired her. Director Sheppard had wanted a man dead so she had blackmailed Haswari. Agent Gibbs had wanted to bring Agent Todd back and it was done and now...

Michelle wasn't sure what Agent Todd was truly after but she was sure that whatever it was would engulf all of NCIS and cause mess for all the 'little' departments, the ones that weren't the face of the agency and out in the field twelve hours a day solving crimes, the 'little' people who were never considered while the 'important' people ran around doing whatever the hell they liked and expected everyone else to make it legal and clean up after them.

Well the hell with them. Michelle was getting out of this while NCIS still had a reasonably untarnished name.

* * *

Abby blinked in surprise when Kate strode into her lab,

"Gibbs sent me" her former best friend practically blurted the explanation as she crossed over the threshold and dropped the Caff-Pow! onto the evidence table.

"Wants to know what you've got on the Petty Officer"

Abby nodded and turned back to the computer automatically explaining her findings while glancing at the field agent out of the corner of her eye.

Kate had visibly changed in the last five years.

Her hair was slightly longer and constantly tied back in plaits or pony tails. Her skin was still tanned from her time in the desert and she held herself differently, or maybe it was the darker hue of her sensible clothing that made her appear different. Her skirts, high heels and pastel shirts had been replaced by pants and tops more suited to impromptu visits to crime scenes and running.

Her eyes had changed the most though.

They didn't sparkle with happiness anymore; they were just steely with grim determination. She could plaster a smile on her face as much as she wanted but her eyes remained cold.

Abby wanted to hug her, to pull her into her arms and hold her until she broke and became the happy Kate she had once loved like a sister but she knew that such a gesture would not only be unwelcome but would likely result in Kate pushing her away hard enough to hurt.

When she was done linking the evidence of the pollen in the victim's throat to a weed native to Miami, Kate gave her cursory thanks before turning on her heel and Abby felt her throat constrict,

"Wait" she called out and saw the woman's shoulder's tense before looking back,

"Problem?"

Abby spun around to quickly tap on her keyboard, bringing up a grainy photo,

"Um...I'm not sure if I should show you this but last week one of our agents in Naples was working a case in Rome and found _this_"

Kate moved to the computer and ducked slightly to see the screen, her eyes studying a crowd of people in a walled enclosure, she was about to ask what the hell she was supposed to be seeing when she spotted him.

Ari.

Unlike most of the people around him, his head wasn't bent in prayer but almost looking directly at the camera, his face a mask as it was wont to be when he was scanning for danger. Her heart stopped and she wondered for a horrible second if Gibbs had sent her down here to be informed of her ex-fiancé's death rather than an attempt to repair the botched friendship between her and Abby. She quickly looked to the forensic scientist with panic written across her face but can't see any reason to prepare for shock or grief,

"Um...I checked with the agent and he said that two Mossad operatives left Italy for Tel Aviv two hours later and I got footage of Has- him going through customs in Israel...he looks fine"

Kate exhaled a breath she didn't even know she had been holding. This time when she thanked Abby it was heartfelt and she found herself wondering if she might have coffee with her in the next week or so.


End file.
